You get the feeling that something is amiss as you walk through the gates of the George Abrahams Home for the aged in August Town. Maybe it's the khaki uniforms hanging on the lines at the front of the yard, the teenagers traipsing through the gates at will, the two young men who climb over the back walls and saunter past, or the older men sitting outside a shed to the right of the premises.

"Yes, mi dear. That's how it is here," one of the female inhabitants says. "And if you talk about it they tell you how dem living here long time and is dem run tings," she adds.

"We can't even go 'roun di back to catch water 'cause all of dem roun' dere and dem curse wi and tell wi we have to wait til dem finish 'cause dem deh here longer than we. We have to do it early in the morning or catch it in the bathroom," says another occupant.

But the problem runs far deeper than the encroachment on physical space and verbal abuse. One of the nine female residents alleges that men from the area sexually harass her and offer her money for sexual favours.

She recalled an incident from as far back as 2004 in the post-Hurricane Ivan period. She said she had lost a relative and had to be doing a great deal of travelling, which ate up the little money she had. A well-known man from the community who had apparently become aware of her desperate situation offered her $100, but only on condition that she had sex with him, she said.

She admitted to initially taking the money, but said she refused his offer for sex because she was a Christian. She said she later consulted with a church sister who advised her to return the money and she did.

"Afta dat, him fren dem start call me all kinds of names and sey how mi tek di man money and how mi an him deh," said the senior citizen.

On another occasion, the woman said she climbed onto a chair to change her incandescent bulb for the fluorescent one provided under the Cuban light bulb project. When she went up onto the chair, the same man barged into her room and put his hand under her skirt, she said.

"I was ironing the day and when he did it I thought of burning him with the iron. God forgive me, because I'm not that kind of person, but that's how I felt," the elderly woman confided.

Other residents who heard her tale, apparently for the first time last week, said that's what she should have done because the man was "out of order" and "disgusting".

She has not formally reported the matter to the police for fear of repercussions.

She also spoke about times when she has to bathe outside (not as a result of infrastructural problems but because of a rift between herself and the neighbour with whom she normally shares a bathroom). Then, she says she has to seek cover from men in the area who either walk by her unashamedly on their way across the premises, or who make advances to her.

"Mi haffi tell dem sey nuh come roun' here, and sometime di brown man come sey him want have sex wid mi."

None of the other women with whom the Sunday Observer spoke confirmed similar experiences, but they admitted to being verbally and psychologically mistreated at the hands of people in the community.

As we spoke, a man came very close to where we were standing, arms behind him, leaning forward, listening to what we were saying. A woman, who had come to retrieve her clothes from the line, followed. She stared openly and walked to the end of the line several times, unnecessarily. Two teenagers walked back and forth for some time as well, which got the golden agers jumpy. And all the while, people squatted by the roadside, just outside the gates.

"Yuh see dem? Nothing name manners dem have," said one of the old women living at the home. "Nothing name quality. An' if dem would just go to school. From soon soon you see dem sitting out there. Dem just sit out there doing nothing. Is not because of my age that I don't go back to school, yuh know. Is because I can't afford it."

Although the home has a gate, the grounds - which comprise a tiny block of seven apartments, each with a sleeping area and a kitchenette, and an additional room that adjoins an office space - are open, and residents from Bryce Hill Road come and go as they please.

However, the Poor Relief Department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security insists there are no security concerns, and denies ever getting complaints of verbal or sexual harassment from the George Abrahams Home for the aged.

"I have never received any report like that," the social worker with direct responsibility for the facility told the Sunday Observer early last week. "The people in the community are quicker to help them than anything else. They catch water there, but that's the most they will do. They won't hurt them," she said, adding that the department has tried to deter the people from fetching water at the home, but to no avail.

"I was there up to Saturday morning and I call them regularly and they have my cell number, my office number and my home number, and I'm sure they'd call and give me a report if anything like that was going on," said the social worker, who asked not to be named.

There have also been reports of men selling drugs on the premises and stealing electricity from it. The Sunday Observer could confirm neither of these, and the Poor Relief Department claims ignorance.

"I have never seen anybody there selling drugs, and I don't tell anyone when I'm going. I just show up," said the Poor Relief department worker, who is also responsible for several other destitute people in the August Town area.

The government worker said she visited the occupants "at least once per week" to ensure that all was well.

Within an hour of having spoken with her on the telephone, the Sunday Observer revisited the scene. Shortly after we arrived, two representatives of the Poor Relief Department showed up asking the residents, "Is who call the media?" They then went from door to door in the small yard asking each female occupant, loudly and in the open, "Anybody ever try to rape you?"

"The answer from every door was similar: "No", or "No, miss."

While that was going on, a man from the area came into the yard removing pieces of old iron and cursing and shouting at the top of his lungs: "Everybody over yah ah informer. Dem ah talk 'bout people ah sell drugs, di whole ah unnu fi dead. Di whole ah unnu fi bun up."

Added one of his colleagues: "Ah some shot dem want man buss inna di place."

Another man soon joined him. "Ah we always ah help unnu. When Ivan ah we come tek up zinc and help unnu out. Same way wid Dean (hurricane) and unnu come now ah look trouble. Hey, if a trouble unnu want, tell we yu nuh, 'cause we have wha' fi bring trouble."

Apparently satisfied that none of the residents were responsible for "building mischief", as the government social worker had put it, the Poor Relief workers kept audience across the street with some community members who were sitting by the roadside. The debate continued about who called the media and who was telling lies.

When contacted on Friday, head of the Poor Relief Department, Lena Lattibeaudiere, was equally dismissive of the claims. She made no references to investigations into the matter but instead defended the community members, who she said were always helping the golden agers.

"That is not true," she gave out before the question had even left this reporter's lips. "That is not true and whoever you are hearing these things from is giving you a false story," she said.

"For the more than 20 years that I've been working with the department I've never got a report like that. Nobody is molesting the residents at the George Abrahams home. It doesn't happen because [they] would have complained."

Upon hearing the allegations, however, social security minister Pearnel Charles, committed to launching an immediate investigation.

"I don't know about that at all. I've never heard about it before but I will immediately be dispatching a team from the ministry to find out whether those are facts or allegations because from my standpoint, that is a zero tolerance issue," he told the Sunday Observer.

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