At 61 years old, Jacqueline Turbitt never thought she would be homeless at this point in her life.

But when she was renovicted from her longtime apartment in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley earlier this year, she says she had nowhere to go.

Turbitt has since stayed at a shelter in Kentville, N.S., and says the only thing making the situation worse is the stigma in the community surrounding homelessness. 

“We just want to be treated with respect. We are human beings. We’re just down on our luck,” Turbitt said.

Tensions over the growing homeless population in Kentville have been on the rise recently, leading to a lively public meeting in January attended by hundreds of people. 

Business owners are upset about disruptive behaviour in the downtown area and some residents have said they feel unsafe. 

But advocates say misinformation online is making the situation worse and turning some people against the services trying to address the problem and the people using them.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s a feeling of ‘I don’t matter,’” Turbitt said.

‘I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy’

Turbitt said she’s encountered several homeless people of her age since she lost her apartment.

That’s a growing trend, according to the executive director of the Open Arms shelter in Kentville.

“Anecdotally, we have been seeing an increase in the number of seniors in need of housing support, especially in our outreach program,” Leanne Jennings said in an email.

Jennings said 20 per cent of the people now staying at the shelter are seniors. 

“None of us want to be [in this situation],” said Gordon Munro, who’s been homeless for six years after health problems forced him to stop working and the building he lived in was sold.

He said there’s a misconception that homeless people have ended up in their predicament because of addiction or mental health issues, but it’s actually the other way around.

“People think ‘Oh you’re just lazy. You don’t want to work or you’re drunk or a drug addict.’ Truth be known, I wasn’t like that until I became homeless,” Munro said. 

He said living on the street is a rough life that takes a significant toll on a person’s health.

“I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy.”

Lack of affordable housing

Munro and Turbitt both said a lack of affordable housing in the area has put them in the situation they’re in.

Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows the vacancy rate in Kentville last year was 1.4 per cent, which was almost less than half the rate in Halifax.

There were 135 housing units completed in Kentville in 2025, but there is still limited development and high demand in communities of that size, Kelvin Ndoro, an economist with the corporation, said in an email.

“This has increased competition for a limited number of units in centres like Kentville, even as affordability challenges persist,” he said.

A recent survey by the corporation shows there are approximately 470 affordable housing units in Kentville, but more than one-third of them were rated in poor condition. 

The provincial government announced earlier this year it is constructing a 30-unit public housing complex in Kentville that’s expected to be complete by the summer of 2027.

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