Disabled Kelowna couple desperately trying to fight off homelessness
Time is rapidly running out for Lindy Bilow and her partner Jim Willoughby.
The disabled couple have only got until Sept. 1 to move out of the home they’ve shared for the past five years and he’s lived in for the past eight.
“We don’t want to be homeless on the streets with my health conditions and with cats,” Bilow told iNFOnews.ca. “We’re trying to find a safe home where we can be healthy and have our cats. They help with my mental illness.
“I’ve talked to so many other people who say people that have pets, it helps keep their mood up. It gives them a reason to live. After losing so much my whole life, we’ve got cats that are basically keeping me alive.”
Bilow is 51 and Willoughby is 10 years older. Their cats are six-year-old TigAroo and four-month-old Kija.
She’s suffered mental health issues much of her life with things like depression, severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. On the physical side she has diabetes and fibromyalgia, which make walking difficult.
Jim has recently had surgery and cannot work.
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Bilow says the house they live in – actually half of a large house in the Landmark area – is making her sicker.
“My health’s gotten worse the last five years since I moved in here,” she said.
There have been rodent problems, doors don’t seal properly so there is constant dust and mould despite daily cleaning no matter how much pain she's in, floors that shift underfoot and during last December’s cold snap they were without heat for two weeks.
“He (landlord) gave us three heaters and charged us $180 extra,” Bilow said.
Now they’ve been issued an eviction notice because the landlord says his son has bought the house and is going to move in.
While she’s skeptical about that actually being true, Bilow felt they had no choice so Willoughby signed the Mutual Agreement to End a Tenancy form.
Between them they have a monthly income of $2,050 and now they need to find some place to rent where they will still have enough money to feed themselves and cover other expenses. They're frequent visitors to food banks, for themselves and for their cats.
“BC housing won’t take us because of our cats,” Bilow said. BC Housing says on its website tenants are allowed one cat but only if it is registered with them.
“I spend at least 15 hours a day looking for pet-friendly rentals within our budget, which is not very much,” Bilow said. “I find so many people out there are looking for pet-friendly rentals. There’s pages and pages of them, asking for references, for rental insurance and everything.”
She’s gone so far as to try to rent a cabin in Winlaw but it was only for six months and the owner was trying to sell it so that fell through.
The problem with moving out of the Kelowna area is that she has a doctor in the city and is now seeing a specialist. While she could commute some distance for medical appointments, their old car is barely running.
“We don’t know what to do,” Bilow said, wondering if they could get an RV and find a place to park it just to keep from being left out on the street.
“I want people to know it is happening,” he said. “People are living in unsafe, unhealthy places and finding it hard, especially for us people needing to have our pets for help.”
Last month, Journey Home executive director Stephanie Gauthier talked to iNFOnew.ca about the growing number of seniors and people on disability falling into homelessness, just like the situation Bilow and Willoughby are facing.
READ MORE: Thousands of Thompson-Okanagan renters at severe risk of homelessness
“We know that, with the benefits system, there’s a significant gap between what people get for their housing allowance and what it costs to be housed,” Gauthier said. “We’ve got the added complexity that we’re talking about people with disabilities and mobility challenges. There’s got to be accessible housing where people can age in place.”
“We just want an affordable, ground floor home, where our cats can come and go,” Bilow said. “But most of all we want an actual home that isn’t making us sick.”
Anyone who is able to help can call Lindy Bilow at 236-795-0900.
- This article was updated at 7:23 a.m., July 10 2023 to change the phone number.
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