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Image Credit: PEXELS

A growing number of seniors are living in poverty and falling into homelessness in B.C., and the crisis is exacerbating already high levels of social isolation. 

“The government knew well in advance the boomers were aging but did nothing to prepare for us,” Kamloops senior, and senior advocate, Diane Czyzewfki told iNFOnews.ca.

According to a 2023 report by United Way British Columbia, a lack of affordable housing with inadequate retirement income means a growing number of seniors are unsheltered or living in substandard or unsafe housing, either forced to stay with abusive family members, live in their cars or camp in the woods.

“Homeless seniors are being lumped into shelters with everyone else and they don’t feel safe there,” Czyzewfki said. “They’re having to live in their vehicle or with kids who don’t want them but there aren’t other options. They’ve never had to face this in their lives and now are fragile and have to deal with this.”

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Czyzewfki interacts with seniors at rallies and local events where she advocates for seniors’ rights. She petitions the local, provincial and federal governments for pension reform and affordable housing for seniors.

She said some seniors who own homes are being pressured to sell them to support themselves, but there's a shortage of spaces in senior care facilities and no affordable housing to move into.

Even maintaining their homes can be a financial impossibility.

“They still have to pay for things, they’re on the verge of losing a house because of high taxes or upkeep like changing a furnace or replacing a roof,” Czyzewfki said. “And yet, if they sell, they have nowhere else to go.”

Kamloops mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson (left) poses with Kamloops seniors advocate Diane Czyzewfki at a pension reform rally in September, 2024.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Diane Czyzewfki

The United Way report stated more and more seniors are on the verge of homelessness for the first in their lives and many consider ending their lives.

“We’ve had seniors mention they were thinking about MAID just to get out of their struggles, and that’s not what MAID is for,” Czyzewfki said.

Part in parcel to the stress and fear that comes with living on the financial edge is isolation, which is rising among seniors across the country, according to a report by the National Institute of Ageing.

Isolation causes dementia and cardio vascular diseases and premature death. An estimated 30 per cent of Canadian seniors are at risk of isolation.

“It isn’t like the old days where you went to visit your grandparents every weekend, that doesn’t exist anymore,” Czyzewfki said. “A lot of people don’t have family and friends living locally, families are spread out now. You walk into a senior care facility and they’re all sitting there just existing.

“Since the pandemic, everyone’s backed off. The schools used to go in with kids and do sing-alongs, but a lot of it stopped.”

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Seniors are further cut off from society because it has become digital. Many seniors never learned how to use social media and many are not connected to the internet. Czyzewfki said she needs to ask her grandkids for help using a computer.

“(Seniors) used to go to services, like the bank, in person to physically pay bills where the tellers got to know them and you need that kind of connection,” she said. “Tellers could see if there was a problem, if a senior had bruises, and the seniors could confide in them about things happening in their life.

“They don’t have that connection now, everything is so robotic.”

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There are many ways to connect and engage with seniors in the community including volunteering at seniors’ places doing crafts or engaging students to send cards to seniors’ facilities. Czyzewfki said more fun events and safe spaces are needed for seniors to relieve the isolation, that they just want to be included, and have some fun and conversations.

She pointed to an innovative shop that opened on Kamloops' North Shore last summer called Old Vintage & Thrift where seniors are safe to gather or work as volunteers at the store, as a perfect example. 

Czyzewki runs a group called Tincup Kamloops that pushes for pension reform and safe affordable housing for seniors in what she calls a "cruel and ageist crisis" for the older population.

The group is under the same umbrella of the Tincup group in Vernon, but the two work independently.

Czyzewki's  group is holding a rally June 11 beside the Safeway parking lot on Fortune Drive and 8 Street on Kamloops' North Shore from 10 a.m. to noon, and everyone is invited to join. 

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