Shelter for Seniors: Doing more to keep people in homes

While many seniors live precariously close to becoming homeless, an organization pushing for all Canadians to have safe, affordable housing, says the short-term solution is a no-brainer.

That’s because the majority of those at risk of being forced to live on the streets are still in a home. The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness calls on the government to do more to keep them there by bolstering income support and boosting benefits.

Sadly, that often doesn’t happen sufficiently, leaving many seniors evicted and lost.

This is the third in a five-part series 660 NewsRadio five-part series, ‘Shelter for Seniors Facing Homelessness; Stories from Calgary,’ where reporter Nadia Moharib explores how the cost-of-living crisis is forcing more elderly Calgarians to live on the cusp of homelessness.

Part 1: Less than 2% of hundreds of seniors looking for housing in the first half of 2024 find it

Part 2: Calgary senior shares her ordeal of surviving a year without a home

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Doing more to keep people in homes will prevent them from ending up on the street

Long before a senior ends up sliding onto a friend’s sofa for the night, sleeping on a shelter mat or ending up on the streets — they had a home of their own.

And Tim Richter, president and CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, says while the government looks for long-term solutions to help unhoused Canadians they ought to do more to protect people from getting there in the first place.

“They are in housing most of the time, they just can’t afford it,” he says. “So, let’s keep them in the housing they have.”

Seniors are a growing number of Canadians hit hard by the affordability crisis. Richter calls the homelessness situation a national disaster and he anticipates a so-called grey wave as more join those desperate for housing.

“I don’t see many governments treating homelessness like the emergency it is. I mean, we have more people now becoming homeless, losing their housing, due to the cost of living crisis than any due to the biggest natural disasters.”

Jason Nixon, Alberta’s Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services, says they are supporting seniors now.

“We’ve got a quarter billion dollars going into rent supplements to be able to keep people in their homes longer and offset the cost of rent while we are building new,” he says.

The vast majority of affordable housing run by the government or funded on a regular basis in the province is earmarked for seniors, he adds.

Richter understands building housing takes time urging governments to do more now.

Many failing to find shelter in the short-term are not seeing the help they need. And the human toll of that is devastating.

“Homelessness is really tough on people at the best of times. It can erase up to 30 years of a person’s life expectancy,” Richter says. ”Often you have people in their fifties who are functional seniors just given the hardships of life experiencing homelessness. So if you are already a senior, this becomes a life-threatening condition, a life-threatening problem.”

If you have any feedback on this series please email nadia.moharib@rci.rogers.com.