Senior citizens, a growing demographic in B.C., may face an increasingly strained housing environment in the years ahead, despite having unique needs that require greater investment by public, private and non-profit housing and care providers.
As of 2020, 19 per cent of British Columbians were 65 or older, a group totalling nearly 986,000 people, according to BC Stats. By 2041, almost 25 per cent of B.C. residents are projected to be seniors—more than 1.6 million people in total.
Many elderly residents require assistance with housekeeping, laundry, meals, mobility, hygiene or the activities of daily living, but experts anticipate a shortage of housing that supports the special challenges of old age.
“When the baby-boomer cohort starts looking around at senior housing, there will be a dramatic change in the marketplace and what people will expect, ranging from long-term care to end-of-life care,” said Dan Levitt, Seniors Advocate of B.C. “We’re in for a ride here.”
Senior housing is a continuum
Senior housing is best thought of as a continuum, said Levitt, whose position is established by provincial legislation and reports annually to B.C.’s Minister of Health.
First on the continuum are seniors who live in standard residential housing. Of them, 80 per cent own their homes and 20 per cent are renters, according to the Office of the Seniors Advocate (OSA). Sometimes apartment buildings evolve into “naturally occurring retirement communities” where a majority of residents are 65 or older. As they age, these seniors have access to home support visits, with user fees based on the number of hours needed daily.
Another option is a private retirement home or “independent living” facility where there is assistance with laundry, housekeeping and meals. According to OSA, there are about 30,000 seniors living in retirement homes, some of which are marketed to high-net-worth retirees and can be very expensive.
For seniors with lower incomes—OSA says one in four seniors lives on $23,000 per year, which is less than the minimum wage—there is subsidized housing operated by non-profits and funded by the province. These rents are usually below $1,000 per month, and residents tend to have chronic conditions, light cognitive impairments or a need for social assistance.
Next on the continuum are assisted-living facilities. In B.C., about 5,000 seniors reside in publicly subsidized assisted living each year, according to OSA. These facilities are for those who need help with the activities of daily living, toileting, medication or bathing. Nurses are generally on hand, and residents pay rent equivalent to 70 per cent of their after-tax income.
At the end of the continuum are facilities known as long-term-care homes, residential care homes or nursing homes. As of 2023, there were 297 long-term-care facilities in B.C. that had 28,064 publicly subsidized beds. Of those, 113 facilities (9,032 beds) were operated directly by a health authority and 184 facilities (18,762 beds) were operated by a for-profit or not-for-profit contractor with funding from a health authority, according to OSA.
For subsidized beds, the cost is up to 80 per cent of after-tax income. Residents of long-term-care facilities often can’t move around on their own or are in wheelchairs. They need help transferring to their bathroom or bedroom, or may have cognitive impairment, incontinence or comorbidities. Usually there is a care plan by a physician, and the facility may also offer programs for palliative care, dementia care or memory care.
Big investments needed in senior housing
Levitt said large investments are needed in subsidized housing—and especially in long-term care. He’s heard of some seniors paying more than $20,000 per month for private long-term care. According to OSA, over 5,000 seniors are on a waitlist for a publicly funded bed. Some have been waiting more than 200 days or have had to relocate to a different town.
The fastest way to get to long-term care is via a hospital, he said. “It’s why we are seeing the uptake of private-pay spaces for long-term care. Some of them have pretty aggressive building plans or expansion plans to fill the void because of not enough government investment.”
One company that offers private options is Optima Living, which has 39 assets with 4,500 beds across Western Canada. About half of those beds are in B.C.
Founded in 2007 in Vancouver, the company offers tailored solutions across the full continuum. About half of the business is “independent living” and the other half has a component of care.
Some Optima facilities have a mix of private- and publicly funded beds and types of care; the configurations vary from asset to asset. Publicly funded spaces are supported by the health authorities which distribute contracts through a public-tender or direct process.
Optima co-founder and principal Karim Kassam said seniors are especially vulnerable to B.C.’s housing crisis.
“Given where we live in Canada, the housing crisis also affects seniors in the same way, if not worse, given their challenges from an income standpoint,” he said. “We have additional issues in our sector such as the regulatory environment that we have to subscribe to. For us, that’s what really impacts our ability to speed and scale our expansion. We want to do more, but we need government support to help us get there.”
Kassam said it’s a competitive marketplace occupied by for-profit and not-for-profit operators, but the barriers to entry are high.
“It’s about ensuring that you deliver a quality care system for the residents that come and live in your communities,” he said. “Once [the government] accepts you, you have an annual qualification process and have to pass audits and licence inspections.”
Affordable, high-quality labour is desperately needed in various categories, he said, and recent changes to the federal government’s temporary foreign worker program are a setback.
Inventory is even more acute than in the U.S., Kassam said.
“We know we are going to have full occupancy,” he said. “The demand is so high that it’s going to cause an exceptional strain on the housing system, health-care system and acute system. If we don’t address this housing crunch now, we are in for some very difficult times ahead.”
Government action needed to close the gap
Experts say there have been some steps in the right direction. The provincial government established the $3.3-billion Community Housing Fund in 2018 to build more subsidized rent-geared-to-income housing, and B.C.’s $500-million Rental Protection Fund allows non-profits to purchase and preserve older rental buildings that would otherwise be subject to so-called demo-victions.
In the spring, the Ministry of Housing expanded benefits for its Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters (SAFER) program. It provides a modest supplement to seniors renting apartments or basement suites, but has not kept up with the actual costs of the rental market, said Laura Kadowaki, research specialist with United Way B.C. She also noted that government income benefits like Old Age Security (OAS), the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) have not kept pace with housing inflation either.
“It needs to be an all-hands-on-deck approach,” said Kadowaki, calling for more subsidized rent-geared-to-income housing for seniors and other low-income individuals. She also wants operating agreements between the provincial government and subsidized housing providers to be extended beyond 2033, by which time almost 30,000 units will otherwise expire under the program.
Asked about the province’s actions to help seniors, Ravi Kahlon, recently B.C.’s minister of housing, said that important investments are being made.
“In my community in Delta, we have a project right now that is 200 long-term-care beds after decades of no investment,” he said. He also pointed to funding for projects like Sunrise Village, North Arm Housing Co-operative and Harmony Apartments, which provide affordable senior housing in Vancouver and Surrey.
“It’s critical that seniors get opportunities to age in place or find affordable housing in communities that they love,” said Kahlon. “We have made significant investments in more affordable housing for seniors, though there’s always opportunities to do more.”
Senior homelessness at unacceptable levels
Meanwhile, senior homelessness continues to worry experts. According to the Homelessness Services Association of B.C.’s 2023 count, there were 11,352 homeless individuals in the province, likely an underestimate. Twenty-one per cent were in the 55-plus age group.
“It’s about 42 percent [of those homeless seniors] who are experiencing first-time homelessness,” Kadowaki said. “Not a continuation of the past, but a person who is for the first time at age 65 or 75 finding themselves homeless and on the streets. That’s definitely very concerning.”
Wendy Rachwalski, manager of community services with the Langley Senior Resources Society, says her organization is seeing more homeless seniors than ever before.
“When I started working here two years ago, we were told, ‘We don’t see any homeless seniors really.’ That has changed drastically,” she said. “People with increased rent costs are not able to make ends meet. Either their building is being torn down or the landlord is kicking them out because they are selling the place or some other different reason.”
(Kahlon said new rules banning personal-use evictions in purpose-built rental buildings with five or more units are largely intended to protect seniors.)
More seniors are also working instead of retiring to afford higher shelter costs. But “nobody wants to hire a 74-year-old man because they would rather hire someone who’s 50 and healthy and able to do the same things,” said Rachwalski.
Ageism is common and should be fought by first examining ourselves and how we value the seniors in our lives, said Seniors Advocate Levitt.
“It starts with us looking at our own fear of growing old and our own fear of seniors,” he said. “We should embrace aging and the fact that more and more British Columbians are going to be over 65. We need to make their needs a priority.”
