"I'm embarrassed": BC senior struggles to find affordable rental housing on a pension
A BC senior is speaking out after she was shocked to find she makes too much money on her pension to qualify for rental financial support, despite the shocking rental prices and affordability challenges in her community.
Nora Henry is a 76-year-old Campbell River resident who never thought she’d be in this position. She moved back to her hometown more than two decades ago and lived with her husband, Bob, at a trailer park where they owned a home. Sadly, seven years ago, Bob passed, leaving Nora to navigate her golden years alone.
“They’re not golden anymore,” she told Daily Hive.
Nora and her late husband, Bob. (Facebook)
Henry sold the trailer and moved into a condo owned by a family member a few years ago, and because of the high interest rates, her family member is selling her home, and she was soon to be without a roof over her head.
Henry is in a financially stressful situation that many are facing in the province. The high cost of living has squeezed many towards the brink, but as she is on a fixed income, she has few options on where to turn. Henry makes about $2,400 a month from her pension, as well as her husband’s, and thought that would be enough to find a comfortable place to live.
But, it’s bleak out there.
The senior says most of the rentals within her budget in this city north of Nanaimo are basically unliveable, and there are relatively few options within her budget, which she had placed at $1,600 a month, not including utilities.
Campbell River is on eastern Vancouver Island. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)
She said she was surprised by how expensive it was out there.
“I guess there’s no place to rent that isn’t going to cost you an arm and a leg. There’s no place to afford for people my age or even young families. I feel sorry for the younger families where the heck are they going to go? They can’t afford these rents. Either unless both of them are working in they’re paying for daycare,” she said.
“It’s a losing battle all around. I mean, what the heck is going on? Like, why is it so hard to live nowadays?” she asked.
She went to an interview for a place she was interested in this week and was asked to supply several personal financial documents to the landlord. She left feeling like there was no hope and that they had already written her off as a financially strong tenant.
Only one rental was below $1,600 a month in Campbell River when Daily Hive searched a rental website. (Rentals.ca)
Why not buy?
Henry had been open to moving back into a mobile home in a trailer park, but she didn’t qualify to buy the one she had been looking at. Despite savings from her previous sale, the mortgage broker could not lend enough to meet the asking price of $185,000.
“She said they refuse your offer. They want to leave it on the market for another couple of weeks and see if somebody bids closer to their asking price. So this has totally gotten out of hand. Really. So I said, Okay, never mind. I’ll see what I can find to rent. Well, that hasn’t been fun either,” she said.
So, she pivoted. Thinking that she had always paid her taxes and had worked hard, she should be able to qualify for government support.
When she looked at BC Housing’s SAFER program’s website, for some reason, she didn’t qualify.
bchousing.org
“There is a form you could fill out with your monthly income, and I put the precise numbers down and what the rent was going to be. They sent me an email back right away saying I don’t qualify; I make too much money,” she said.
Feeling upset, she took her situation to a community Facebook group, and was shocked by the outpouring of support from those in the Vancouver Island community.
“I’m embarrassed to say that I can’t afford to live the rest of my days with a roof over my head. What has this world come to?” her post read in part.
Many offered up their homes.
“The response has been unbelievable. I have been getting people offering me places to live. One doesn’t have a bathroom, one is in Gold River, and I mean, it’s amazing how many people are stepping up to the plate, but I can’t accept most of it because I’m in Campbell River,” she said.
While she was touched by the offers, she didn’t want to leave her hometown.
“I went through a little bit of a crying period here. But I mean, what’s it going to get me? Nothing, absolutely nothing and I’m a fighter from way back when. I mean, I lived through, you know, women’s lib and the whole nine yards. I don’t give up easily. I keep plugging along until something clicks,” she said.
Some hope for her, but many still left behind
Following our interview with Henry, she had received some good news. She had been approved to move into the apartment she had been hoping for, after an extensive process to prove her financial situation with the landlord and after she had taken to social media with her concerns.
But, while she’s no longer facing homelessness, she says she now knows the extent of the problem.
“I feel really bad for a lot of people who are struggling. I’m not the only one. I belong to the Senior Centre and that was a topic of conversation today when I was down there: how do we afford to live?”
“That is really, really sad. There’s a lot of people in my boat.”
She’s among many who say they are falling through the cracks due to unaffordability in the province. While critics are quick to offer so-called solutions to solve BC’s unaffordability situation by suggesting residents who can’t rent in Vancouver go elsewhere, to less urban areas for example, even areas outside of urban centres are seeing high rents and few options.
Behind the times
BC Housing acknowledges that there is still a long way to go especially when it comes to supply.
“We know more needs to be done, which is why we are working to provide seniors throughout British Columbia with the support they need, in homes where they feel safe and connected. We’re creating thousands more social housing units, including 20,000 new rental homes for seniors and families through the Community Housing Fund to help them stay in their communities,” BC Housing said.
“Rental Assistance Program (RAP) and Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters (SAFER) programs have not kept pace with market rents and with increased living costs many low-income seniors are struggling in the current rental market. We are working with the Ministry of Housing to better understand opportunities that may exist to adjust this program to benefit more people. More information on this process and updates to the programs will be made public soon, once changes have been finalized,” it added.
Many take to the streets to protest
Several organizations, including the Office of the Seniors Advocate of British Columbia and Seniors Tin Cup, have been calling for changes to be made for years.
Protests have been held this week at several spots over the low pensions that seniors receive from the Canadian government.
Henry is joining the fight, planning to rally around this issue in the months ahead.
“There are so many baby boomers and the ones with only one income of OAS and CPP are struggling. Some are getting SAFER but are barely making it when they get rent increases. As you know pensions don’t compensate and don’t increase often or keep up with the economy,” she said. “We need to be acknowledged.”
Tin Cup is planning more protests in June.
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