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With the dramatic increase in the seniors’ population as the baby boom moves into this age category, the following information is troubling, but not unexpected-seniors who are selling their house to move into a retirement home should ensure they have a place to go.

Statistics Canada has released their 2016 Seniors’ Housing report, with a  download report available by province here.

For the fourth year in a row, the vacancy rate for seniors’ independent living facilities in British Columbia  has declined, from 9.8 per cent in 2015 to 5.7 per cent in 2016.  Why? Seniors may be living longer, but they are also selling their accommodations to move into these facilities.  The average rent for a seniors’ retirement home is also increasing to an average of $3,329.00 a month.

British Columbia’s Seniors’ Advocate Isobel Mackenzie is aware of the challenge, and has been reporting on the gaps in service for seniors. In her 2015 annual report Mackenzie notes that housing must be affordable, accessible and available for seniors. She has been receiving complaints that seniors cannot access housing in their preferred residential facility, that they are concerned over increasing housing costs, and that there is a need for assistance in dealing with housing subsidy applications. There are also gaps when seniors are being discharged from hospitals without adequate home supports in place.  Half of all the calls to the B.C. Seniors’ Advocate relate to this issue.

This brings up the conversation about having seniors’ housing at the different care levels available in the different neighbourhoods that seniors currently reside in, so that they can age in place. The strict criteria to qualify for housekeeping  services means that many frail seniors with fixed incomes do not qualify for assistance.  Sixty-five per cent of seniors also have no retirement benefit package assisting with the cost of medications, glasses and hearing  aids. 

Metro Vancouver is becoming a place where both the young and the elderly demographic groups are feeling the  pinch in accommodation, affordability and accessibility to housing.

Is there a way for both of these demographic groups to have access to affordable housing in every neighbourhood? What would that look like?

 

 

 

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  1. The average of $3,329.00 a month you quote in italics is a rate that covers more than just accommodation. These seniors’ independent living facilities are designed for congregate living, with many amenities, including meal services for two or three meals per day, social and recreational activities, weekly housekeeping and laundry and some transportation services.

  2. Metro Vancouver is becoming a place where both the young and the elderly … are feeling the pinch in accommodation [availability], affordability and accessibility to housing. Is there a way for both of these … groups to have access to affordable housing in every neighbourhood? What would that look like?

    An excellent question with no easy answers. It touches a personal note.

    First, Assisted Living is the farthest thing from affordable housing one can imagine. This private senior’s housing model assumes a lifetime of cumulative wealth will be made available by residents to attain the comforts of chef-prepared meals, recreation programs, a nice apartment, well-appointed common areas, etc. This will not be attainable to every senior, especially those who require regular medical care. In fact, perhaps the majority will never be able to afford these comforts, or will need better medical care not available in these facilities. Nonetheless, private Assisted Living facilities are making inroads in many neighbourhoods, notably on the wealthier west side.

    This brings us to the next stage. Half or more of the senior population is comprised of singles. Many elderly persons want to stay in their own homes more than anything else and would find moving very stressful. They may be house rich and income poor, or just plain poor and living as a long-time renter in a private apartment complex. When a senior’s health inevitably declines, there should be an array of well-thought out and practiced publicly-funded options available to those who cannot afford Assisted Living that could be activated, such as developing a better homecare program with multiple stages of intermediate care. Families can only do so much regarding looking after their elders on their own before they burn out and the healthcare system is called upon, but often fails them.

    Sadly, this topic uncovers a massive vacuum in policy (homecare is largely inadequate here), and I am dismayed that the province and the feds haven’t responded to years of studies, reports and published opinions on the necessity to revamp the healthcare system to accommodate the approaching tsunami of ageing Boomers. The fact of the matter is that the form of elder care housing that best meets the needs of those who are in the beginning or intermediate stages of decline are their own homes. Expanding homecare to a large, professional subclass of nursing means society saves money on funding care facilities, and if homecare levels become a model of excellence (one can only hope), significant amounts of public money is saved by keeping seniors out of hospital beds. The evidence indicates seniors heal faster, or at least are stable longer, when they remain in the familiar surroundings and comforts of home. Cities can help by cutting the elderly some bylaw slack when retrofitting their homes with wheelchair ramps, lifts, disabled parking and so forth.

    My father died at 89 at the end of a three-week stay in hospital. He lived in his private condo right up to the end of his long and good life. He hated doctors and hospitals after dealing with the decline and death of his second wife, but was calm and accepting this last time. He more than compensated for the healthcare services he consumed via the taxes he paid for decades.

    My mother, on the other hand, died last year at 90 after 12 years in a top line subsidized care facility, and that was after 12 years in a large subsidized complex for low income seniors. There is no pension plan for housewives, so the complex, quite literally a multiple building warehouse for 1,500 seniors placed in a derelict part of the downtown of a large Western Canadian city, was filled with mostly poor single women living in tiny self-contained apartments. These units pre-dated the concept of micro-lofts by 40 years.

    This is not a form of housing I would call a model of good social planning. Though subsidized senior’s housing remains a very big need, they are not funded well and have been prone to the machinations of bureaucratic central planning and the occasional discredited slash and burn government policy derived by Milton Freidman and the Chicago School. Many rely on the generosity of private or religious foundations that may have varying standards. However, seeing more numerous, modestly-sized, well-built and comfortable subsidized senior’s housing appear in all neighbourhoods would be, in my view, a welcome contribution to the maturing of our society and city. If philanthropic organizations cannot fill the demand in partnership with governments, then perhaps a non-profit, resident shareholder or land trust system could be developed to build and run them. If located on or near arterials, the ground floor spaces could be leased to offset the public subsidy and operating costs. This, coupled with a redesigned and expanded homecare system, will in my opinion be the most beneficial intermediate contribution to an ageing population.

    Last comes 24 / 7 / 365 subsidized care. This is the most expensive for of senior’s subsidy, but it’s still cheaper than hospitals. The fact is that there just aren’t enough continuing care facilities today, let alone to meet the oncoming huge demand, and that is criminally short of intelligent governance to benefit the common good, especially in light of the government’s spending policies on unneeded freeways, LNG dreaming, dams, tax breaks for the rich and other follies that together will greatly drain public finances while our elders suffer. Moreover, the regulation of existing care facilities is so lax in BC that stories of neglect by cheap private owners who cut back staffing levels, training and equipment while concurrently collecting loads of subsidy appear like clockwork on the news.

    Most of us will have seniors in these facilities, but the BC Libs are biased to the rich who can afford expensive private care and Assisted Living. It shows in other areas too (e.g. public vs private education). Well, it’s time to inform them that neglect is no longer an acceptable public policy. An ageing society is a cross-jurisdictional issue, so no single province or city should have to handle the burden, or assume alone the deep planning required to figure out how to best achieve the equanimity of mind needed for long-range planning. This issue touches the national and neighbourhood scales, and everything in between. We must personally prepare for the inevitable as well.

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