Seniors homelessness is on the rise in Greater Victoria—prompting a call for more age-appropriate housing
A change is being seen among homeless people in Victoria, British Columbia. Alan Rycroft, a spokesperson for the Victoria Cool Aid Society, told MetroNews, “In our shelter system, we’ve been watching the ages climb and we also see it in our intake for supportive housing.” Andrew Wynn-Williams, executive director of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, told MetroNews that it’s a matter of demographics: “We have an aging population, and that will impact on the homeless population as well.”
The most recent information specific to the age level of Greater Victoria’s homeless population is unpublished data gathered from shelter data submitted to B.C. Housing. But 2011-2012 figures from the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness show that seniors comprised 12 per cent of the street population—which was an increase from eight per cent in 2008-09.
The Times Colonist reported, in an article called Homeless at 75: As Victoria’s population ages, more people are caught in the cracks, that “all organizations acknowledge there is a critical shortage of affordable housing in Victoria.” Rev. Al Tysick of the Dandelion Society, who advocates for people who are extremely hard to house, told the newspaper, “There’s a big hole in the fabric of the safety net,” and that it is economically — as well as socially — necessary to house homeless seniors.
We speak with Andrew Wynn-Williams, executive director of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness.
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RELATED | Times Colonist: Homeless at 75: As Victoria’s population ages, more people are caught in the cracks (June 2, 2013) | Times Colonist: Number of homeless over age 55 increases as our population ages (June 1, 2013) | MetroNews: Advocates call for age-appropriate housing as Victoria’s homeless ages (June 3, 2013) | Report: Quiet crisis: Homelessness and At Risk in Greater Victoria 2011-2012 (opens to PDF) |
