Multi-year wait list for seniors

Jan 30, 2025 | 4:07 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Chateau is one of a handful of available options for seniors housing. But access to seniors’ housing is lean at its best. In fact, there is a wait list for housing. And it’s egregious.

“There’s long wait lists for seniors housing,” says Jenine Bortolon, Seniors Housing Advocate for the Prince George Council of Seniors. “But I believe the wait list is four years. So it’s tricky to try and find places for seniors. But there is [a program] called Safer. It’s a program through B.C. Housing. It’s monthly assistance that helps seniors with their monthly rent.”

Bortolon says financial help is fine and dandy if there is a place to rent. And that is the hitch. With an 18 per cent increase in rental costs between 2021 and today, the loss of affordable rental units continues to climb. Based on data from the 2021 Census, it is estimated that there are 38,000 low-income seniors living in unaffordable, unsuitable, or inadequate rental housing in BC.

As such the United Way has weighed in on the issue, working hand in glove with the Seniors Council to meet housing needs.

“Janine is great at providing really holistic support to for seniors as they are transitioning in their housing to be able to ensure that there’s they may need moving support or advocacy with utilities and that so there’s definitely overlap in what we do,” explains Melanie Babbitt, Community Connector.

And housing is a critical factor in the mental health of seniors.

“Being able to look at what the social factors are in a person’s life that may be a detriment to their healthy living and the effects of loneliness on the senior population and how that impacts even their health, their physical health.”

So with wait lists pushing into four years, what are other options available? Well, say, you have a vacant mother-in-law suite in the basement. Can that be offered up as an option?

“Absolutely they can,” says Malhar Kendurkar, Executive Director with PGCOS. “So they can call our office and they can talk to Janine and they can let her know that, ‘Hey, you know, if there is a senior who is in need of renting an apartment or a studio. And then she will talk to that senior because she has a list of clients who are in desperate need of affordable housing.”

Bortolon says it’s merely a matter of calling the Council of Seniors a call to find out if you are a fit.

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