A “triple whammy” is contributing to rise in homelessness among seniors in Metro Vancouver.
Brian Dodd, interim executive director of the Seniors Services Society, said New Westminster is second only to Vancouver in terms of the number of homeless seniors it serves.
“Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a myth that everybody has a nice little nest egg, they all own their own homes and once you are over 65 you can put your feet up and take it easy,” he said. “Life sometimes interferes with that. We are dealing with a lot of people who have worked hard their entire lives and thought they had that nest egg, but for one reason or another, it slips away. It could be an illness, it could be the loss of a loved one. It could be the high cost of the rental market in Metro Vancouver.”
According to Dodd, the fastest growing demographic in the homelessness realm right now is people over 55 years of age.
“We are hit with a triple whammy here because in Metro Vancouver we have the highest cost of living in the country, we have got the highest cost of rental accommodations and we’ve got zero vacancy rates. That, tied to limited income or a fixed pension, can often mean problems and sometimes folks don’t want to admit there’s a problem until it’s too late,” Dodd said. “That’s where we come in.”
The average stay in a shelter for a senior over 65 was nine days in 2005, but that had grown to 21.5 days in 2014, Dodd said.
“That’s 21.5 days too long for a seniors to be in a shelter environment,” he said. “So what do we do about it? We operate a temporary housing program which is based out of our operation here in New Westminster, where we have 20 units supplied to us through B.C. Housing, where we can shelter seniors in a bachelor suite, fully furnished, for three to six months while we stabilize them, while we get to the root cause of why they are homeless and then work from there to connect the dots so that their next move is into a permanent facility.”
The society gets funding from B.C. Housing, the City of Vancouver and the City of New Westminster for its core program, but the Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser supplements services for seniors who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
“What this particular event, Coldest Night of the Year, allows us to do is to buy the little things that make a house a home,” Dodd said. “We are putting 30 or 40 people a year through our temporary housing program. A lot of people we can take straight from a homeless situation straight into permanent housing, but generally they are coming with nothing.”
The third annual Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser in New Westminster aims to raise $45,000, which will be used to buy bedding, linens, kitchen appliances and utensils, cleaning supplies and other items to help outfit apartments for needy seniors.
“These are all things that just don’t magically appear,” Dodd said. “We have to find the dollars to go out and do that. Unfortunately, that’s not the kind of thing that’s easy to fundraise for. This particular event was a godsend to us a few years ago when it came about.”
New Westminster is one of more than 100 communities taking part in the Coldest Night of the Year with its Saturday, Feb. 25 walk at Westminster Quay and River Market. For more information visit www.cnoy.org (click on New Westminster under Location) or call the Seniors Services Society at 604-520-6621 or drop by 750 Carnarvon St.
“We are all walking for the hungry, the hurting or the homeless,” Dodd said. “What I am asking the good folks of New Westminster to do is come out and support us on Feb. 25 by walking for seniors and those who often can’t help themselves, those who are slipping through the cracks, and helping us connect the dots so they can get from homelessness to home.”
