Manitoba must do more for seniors

Statistics Canada reports that, between 2021 and 2041, the number of adults over 55 years of age in Manitoba will grow from 400,000 to 520,000 persons, an increase of 30 per cent. Our provincial government needs to expand housing options for seniors in our province to address this aging demographic.

The Manitoba Seniors Equity Action Coalition, a newly formed policy and legal advocacy non-profit organization, along with other seniors’ groups and community organizations, have identified important actions that the provincial government can take to better address the assisted living housing needs of low- and fixed-income seniors.

Presently, the provincial government’s policy for seniors in assisted living housing, which includes a meal program along with cleaning and laundry services in addition to rent, is based on being solely provided by the private market.

This current policy approach does not address the needs of low- and fixed-income seniors. Monthly private market rent for seniors assisted living housing ranges from $3,000 to $6,000 per month. The total income for an individual older adult receiving Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement pensions is less than $2,000 per month.

More rent-geared-to-income, non-profit, assisted-living housing units and rent/service package subsidy programs are required to prevent the premature entry of low- and fixed-income seniors into long-term care homes.

Without this type of housing support to age in place, these seniors wind up in the emergency wards with many finding themselves waiting in hospitals for long-term care beds. Some seniors living in long-term care homes do not require this level of care but live in these facilities because of the shortage of assisted living housing options in the community.

Expanding assisted living housing opportunities for low- and fixed-income seniors would not only improve the quality of their lives, but it would also address structural health-care system issues involving hospital and long-term care bed shortages.

Low- and fixed-income seniors are also experiencing a food affordability crisis which is negatively impacting their health and well-being. Assisted living housing could play a key role in addressing this growing problem because the congregate meal programs at these facilities not only provides nutritious food, but also addresses social isolation. The World Health Organization identifies loneliness as a growing epidemic affecting the mental health of older adults.

A seniors assisted living housing plan has been developed by a group of seniors and community organizations for the provincial government, which includes the following recommendations:

Discontinue the present policy of seniors assisted living housing being solely provided by the private market and make a public commitment that acknowledges the critical role for the provincial government to address the assisted living housing needs of low- and fixed-income seniors.

Negotiate with the federal government to ensure that housing for seniors, including assisted living housing for low- and fixed-income seniors, be funded by the federal government’s Build Canada Homes program.

Provide enhanced project development funding for non-profit assisted living housing proponents, especially groups with a focus on older adults from Indigenous, racialized, LGBTTQ+, persons with disabilities and homeless communities, to build rent-geared-to-income/services-geared-to-income units to better address the needs of low- and fixed-income seniors.

Set annual and multi-year targets to expand the provincial government’s Social Housing Assisted Living program, which provides a rent-geared-to-income subsidy and a $700 per month service subsidy, which includes a food program, laundry and cleaning services, for low- and fixed-income seniors. Presently, there are only 65 SHAL units in the entire province, most are located in a building which the government has acknowledged is underutilized because of safety concerns associated with the building.

Establish a new assisted living assist program for seniors, similar to the Rent Assist program, that would provide an integrated subsidy program, including rent-geared-to-income subsidies and services geared to income — food program, laundry and cleaning services subsidies, to enable more low- and fixed-income seniors to live in existing assisted living housing facilities, especially in the interim period while non-profit assisted living housing units are being built.

Given Manitoba’s aging demographics, the private housing sector fully understands that there are lucrative investment opportunities for building assisted living housing for middle- and upper-class seniors in our province. It is imperative that the provincial and federal governments ensure that low- and fixed-income older adults in Manitoba are also afforded this same type of care to meet their evolving housing needs that clearly are not being addressed by the private market.

Lucille Bruce and Sandra Sukhan are co-chairs of the Manitoba Seniors Equity Action Coalition.