FRIDAY
UFV SWEEPS UNBC
JANUARY 22, 2016
Cascades post pair of wins over Timberwolves on home court as they continue playoff push A21
your life your community.
A B B O T S F O R D
twitter.com/abbynews facebook.com/myabbynews
Online all the time. In print Wednesday & Friday.
Innovative housing project faces security concerns Safety, troubled neighbourhood among residents’ issues MAY DAY IN JEOPARDY?
Tyler OLSEN Abbotsford News
The flash of police lights has become too common at an affordable housing project for seniors, according to a group of past and present residents of Lynnhaven Society’s two apartment buildings. But while the tenants say internal and external security concerns have driven them to seek different housing, the society’s executive director, Leona Watts, said the non-profit organization has done its best to make its two Braun Avenue buildings as safe as possible. The society’s twin four-storey buildings were opened to fanfare in early 2014, with residents in tiny-but-efficient 300-squarefoot units. A dearth of affordable housing in Abbotsford meant the building’s 64 apartments were in high demand by seniors like Philip Whelan, who wanted to retire but was still employed in the construction industry. “I just felt that it was going to be the place for me to be,” said Whelan. “Unfortunately, within a few months, everything started to surface. “The noise and the chaos and the gunshots and the screaming. I was getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning and sometimes I was kept up most of the night.” For more than 60 years, the Lynnhaven Society had previously operated a housing project on Lynn Avenue, where residents lived in 40 ranch-style units. In 2011, the society was given approval to sell that facility, which was increasingly costly to maintain, and construct two new buildings on Braun Avenue, closer to the city’s downtown core. Today, eight of the 64 Lynnhaven units are reserved for people over the age of 55 with disabilities, who pay $375 monthly, while the rest are seContinued on A4
A7 Parents say 97-year-old Bradner tradition threatened by proposed school changes
VEHICLES TARGETED A6 Police record hike in items being stolen from cars throughout Abbotsford
FAMILY SUNDAYS A11 Arts program at The Reach free to children and caregivers
■
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A21
■
Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . .A27
85¢ TYLER OLSEN Abbotsford News
Ex-residents Phillip Whelan (left) and Patrick Charlesworth, along with longtime Lynnhaven resident Elaine Ireland, were among those who signed a petition to remove the Lynnhaven Society’s board.
LEASE FROM
129 BI-WEEKLY AT 1.99
%
DRIVE OF YOUR LIFE!
HOME OF C A N A D A’ S O N LY
APR
2016 CX-5 AWD
604.857.1600
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A9
■ Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A8
TAKE THE TEST $
■
M I L E A G E WA R R A N T Y
LEASE FROM
123 BI-WEEKLY AT 3.49%APR
$
STANDARD ON ALL 2015 & 2016 MODELS
www.vipmazda.com
Fraser Valley Auto Mall
VIPMAZDA
2016 CX-3 AWD