Change starts here.
Change starts here.
Riho has little in the way of possessions, but he has lived a life that few of us could imagine. As a bright young student he received a scholarship to study engineering at the University of British Columbia. Later he received his PhD in applied physics at Cornell University and went on to a highly classified career. He worked on the US Minuteman missile project.
This is not the face of homelessness that we are used to seeing. “I gave money to people that I shouldn’t have,” he says. After a few bad business deals, Riho was evicted and ended up at Burnaby General Hospital.
He met a social worker there who provides outreach to seniors that are at risk of homelessness or are already homeless. She helped him to find a room. Riho is one of the lucky ones. With a rapidly aging population, more seniors will need housing in the future.
The Seniors Services Society, with funding from United Way of the Lower Mainland, researched and developed a model of temporary housing for seniors.
The program helps seniors one at a time by providing temporary housing. The society’s main goal is to help clients find affordable, permanent housing within three months.
Seniors represent the fastest growing homeless group in the Metro Vancouver region. Almost one in four seniors (23%) in the region lives below the poverty line, and 30% of seniors live alone.
United Way of the Lower Mainland provides hope and opportunity for the seniors community. When seniors suffer from isolation, poverty, and homelessness, we all lose. In supporting seniors services, and allowing older people to stay active and live independently, we lessen the impact on our health system and benefit from a lifetime of experience.
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