Castlegar City Council Talks Senior Housing Woes

One delegation to Castlegar City Council last week, May 15^th, hoped to prioritize local senior housing.

Leni Normington covered 2021 census data suggesting roughly 3280 seniors live in Castlegar, Area I and J, with 25% of Castlegar's over 8000 residents at over 65-years of age.

Normington says increased targeted senior housing trickles down to every generation, but our area currently lacks availability:

“I understand that you are trying to reassure us that you are doing a good job and believe me, governance is not an easy job; you are doing a good job. But I guess we’re asking for more. We want to see seniors addressed in your future housing policies. Not in two years, not in five years, we want to see it now.”

Mayor Maria McFaddin says it's not an easy fix, but the ball is in motion:

“It’s not something that’s off our radar, it is something we discuss. Because the other big constraint that we get when it comes to housing is affordable housing and we don’t have even a women’s transition housing for…. There’s lots of things in that Housing Needs Assessment that came up as the same level for senior’s housing.”

“Part of the reason why we have a Housing Needs Assessment and Strategy: Those are so that we can make good decisions when developers come, when we know how to make policy, all of that. We know how to incentivize and make it easier for specifically senior’s housing, other types of housing, to come to fruition. The unfortunate part and you’ll see this in most municipalities is that cities most of the times aren’t in the business of building housing, because again we’re not funded in a way to be in the business….”

Councillor Falstead says when the condo she rented for five years was sold, she was lucky to have family close by as no other accommodation has been available.

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