Ottawa’s housing shortage is victimizing an already vulnerable group in Canadian society.
When most people think about the poor, pictures of elderly women don’t usually spring to mind. But in fact, it’s a misguided image because elderly women are over- represented among Canada’s elderly poor.
And in Ottawa, some of these elderly women are being forced into shelters because there isn’t enough housing, or they can’t afford the housing that’s out there. The Women’s Shelter on O’Connor Street recently accepted a 79-year-old woman into the shelter, when they usually don’t accept women over 60.
The ridiculously low vacancy rate and high rental prices in Ottawa have drawn a lot of attention in recent months. It has been well documented that this has had a profound impact on students. But it now it appears that elderly women, who are much more vulnerable, are also facing a housing crisis.
Every one of the 144 rental units built in Ottawa in 1999 had rents above $840 per month – far from affordable for most renters, not to mention for most seniors. More than 40 per cent of Ottawa renters pay more than a third of their income on rent alone. More than 20 per cent pay more than half their income on rent. If 60 per cent of renters in Ottawa have to spend over a third of their income on rents, how can elderly women be expected to find and afford acceptable housing?
Women make up a relatively large population of seniors. The share of the senior population accounted for by women is dramatically higher in the older age ranges. In 1998, women made up 70 per cent of all persons aged 85 and older and 60 per cent of those aged 75-84, while they made up 54 per cent of people aged 65-74. With women compromising such a significant number of elderly seniors, it’s critical that support systems are in place for them.
The baby-boom population is getting older and in a few short years will put even more of a strain on an already fragile social system. If we’re finding it difficult to take care of seniors now, the situation will be infinitely more serious in the near future.
About one in five seniors in Canada live in a low-income situation and female seniors have significantly lower incomes than their male counterparts. In 1997 about half of senior women (49 per cent) lived in a low-income situation.
The last two decades have seen a decline in poverty among the elderly. Nevertheless, a large number of seniors still live below the poverty line.
It ‘s unacceptable that elderly women in Ottawa are being forced into shelters. We’re told to respect our elders. Are we living up to that paradigm if elderly women in Ottawa can’t afford a place to live?
—Hafeez Janmohamed