More B.C. seniors than ever in dire need of financial help, and it's only getting worse, say advocates
The number of calls for financial help from seniors has doubled, and what they need is greater too, a support group tells CTV News.
“It has increased from, 'Can we have some grocery vouchers?' to, 'I have nowhere to live, I don’t have enough money to afford what’s available out there,'” said Adam Thompson of the Hope for Freedom Society.
The not-for-profit group provides homeless outreach services for people, including seniors, in Metro Vancouver’s Tri-Cities region.
Brian McLeod has worked all his life. The 65-year-old was living in a motor home without plumbing and electricity until the society reached out and offered help.
McLeod admitted candidly that he "would have been dead” had the Hope for Freedom Society not intervened.
“I’m not the only one,” he told CTV News. “There’s so many senior citizens out there that need help in the worst way.”
The Office of the Seniors Advocate of B.C. estimates almost half of Vancouver seniors are living on incomes that fall below the minimum wage.
Many of them are people who have been employed all of their lives and saved what they could for retirement.
“With these high prices around food and the explosion in the prices in the rental markets, the proverbial chickens are coming to roost,” said the advocate, Isobel Mackenzie.
“People who were able to eke along in the past are now not going to be able to do that,” she said.
Critics are calling for an overhaul of seniors’ affordable rent programs, and a significant increase in pensions.
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