‘Priced out of life’: Winnipeg homeless shelter sees rise in seniors needing to use its services

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Peggy

A Winnipeg shelter says it’s seeing a rising number of seniors accessing its services, with some experiencing homelessness for the first time.

“A lot of them are simply being priced out of life, for a lack of a better term,” said Darren Nodrick, the director of development at Siloam Mission in Winnipeg. “Increased cost in rent as well as food is just too much.

“Some folks that are accessing our drop-in are coming for meals because they’re having to choose between rent and/or food.”

Nodrick said seniors experiencing homelessness or needing to access meals gravitate toward Siloam Mission, and “the numbers have definitely gone up.

“I think probably by about 10 per cent over the last year in particular since we’ve seen the rise of inflation back in 2023,” he said.

A woman on a pink sweater stands in front of a room. — Siloam Mission CEO Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud posted about the ‘devastating’ number of seniors coming into homelessness for the first time. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC )

Earlier this week, Siloam Mission CEO Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud posted in an Instagram story that the “the amount of seniors coming into homelessness for their first time is devastating.”

Nodrick didn’t have an exact number for how many seniors accessing services at Siloam Mission are coming into homelessness for the first time, but said “we are hearing it more and more.”

“We all have grandparents, parents and they deserve to age with dignity,” he said. “[With] what’s happening right now, that’s not happening for so many.”

Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of CanAge, a national advocacy organization for seniors, said in the last few years there’s been a “sharp” rise in seniors experiencing homelessness.

“What we know is, older adults are using shelters more than they ever have before,” she said. “And we have more people experiencing homelessness for the first time who are older than before as well.”

Tamblyn Watts also said many people over the age of 70 are also now “experiencing homelessness now more than ever before.”

She said the organization is calling the amount of seniors experiencing homelessness along with seniors becoming homeless for the first time “an emergency situation.”

“We know as well as temperatures are dropping that many older people are facing choices that nobody should have to make,” she said. “Either making decisions to pay their rent or their mortgage versus trying to put food on the table, or buy prescriptions.”

Meanwhile, Nodrick said one of the key points in combating homelessness will be to create more affordable housing, especially for seniors who are living on a fixed income.

“Even though inflation has levelled out, at least for the time being, those costs don’t go back down and we’re not seeing tremendous increases in the income for seniors as well,” he said. “So, that gap that’s happened between their fixed income and their cost of living isn’t going to shrink unless we create the affordable housing that’s necessary.”