Meeting the evolving housing needs of Humboldt's senior citizens is another challenge facing the city at a time when it's experiencing both unprecedented growth and a serious housing shortage.
Humboldt city councillor Marilyn Scott addressed those concerns at the Aging in Place conference, held two weeks ago at Jubilee Hall in Humboldt. The city's Task Force on Housing then released its report and recommendations on May 24.
Scott noted that people's housing needs change as they start to age, so accessibility and access to health care and other services becomes of even greater concern. She said much needs to be done to plan for the future, as a veritable "tsunami" of Baby Boomers begins reaching age 65.
But looking to the various levels of government to solve these problems is not likely the answer, Scott said.
"There are lots of challenges in terms of people's expectations," she agreed. "And I guess years ago, the government was able to do a certain amount But as the size of the senior population grows that becomes more and more difficult."
Scott noted that government at all levels is squeezed by existing spending pressures, so finding public money to address affordable housing issues isn't easy. She noted that when the provincial government rolled out a program in which they would match housing grants on a 50-50 basis with Saskatchewan municipalities, many municipalities were not in a position to take advantage. Also, some were reluctant to get into the housing business, especially if their involvement might discourage private developers.
"I think it took some of the municipalities aback," Scott said of the plan. "Because for one thing, it's a tough call to make. If you own an apartment building, and all of a sudden the city is going to step up and subsidize an apartment building that might be competing with you, do you really want your tax dollars to be used for that?
"The bigger question for us is where do we come up with the money, when we have so many demands in terms of the conditions of our roads and the priorities that are already established there, that we have to be doing major investing in infrastructure and so forth," she added. "We already have those challenges. So to ask each municipality to then come up with additional resources to encourage new housing, well I like the idea of doing anything we can so that the housing is available. But that might be too much of a demand on our resources."
Yet relying solely on private development might not be the answer either, as ballooning construction costs have made the building of affordable housing fairly unattractive. Scott noted that back in the 1980s, some friends were able to build an apartment block at a cost of around $15,000 per unit. Now, "Even for a bare-bones unit," the cost would be more like $100,000.
"That's a 650 per cent increase in building costs, yet what's happened with rentals?" she said. "My friends felt that if they could charge $350 a month back then, they'd be quite happy. Now you can maybe charge $1,000 a month. So while building costs have increased by 650 per cent, rent has gone up only 350 per cent or so. You can't recoup your costs."
Something the Housing Task Force looked at was not only the needs of an aging population within the city of Humboldt, but also, how that change in demographics will affect the region as a whole. Scott said affordable housing initiatives should consider the role smaller communities could play in alleviating such shortages.
"We got together stakeholders not just from Humboldt, but people from the region," she said. "Because what we were hearing from some of the developers was that Humboldt may not offer the economies of scale that they need in order to make it worthwhile coming in here and building some of the kinds of homes that we need. But if they can do some in Humboldt and some in Englefeld, and some in LeRoy - that kind of thing - then maybe it's doable. But at least from an economic point of view, we felt that we needed to look at (the issue) regionally."
Overall, Scott would like to see a more holistic approach to addressing the issues of seniors - and indeed, all Humboldt area citizens - as they continue to age. One recommendation of the Task Force on Housing is to allow for the building of secondary suites - sometimes called "granny" suites" - that would allow older residents to live close to family, while at the same time allowing a measure of privacy and greater affordability. In a recent interview with the Humboldt Journal, city manager James Moller said granny suites also have the advantage of giving property owners a potential added source of income with which to tackle their own mortgages.
Scott is certainly encouraged by the new Caleb Village seniors' community here in Humboldt, but she stressed that such an option won't suit all seniors' budgets and needs,
"It's a tremendous facility, and they offer great service to seniors," she said. But it's not a solution for all.
"Caleb quite fairly has to have a certain number of people participating in their meal program in order to make it feasible. I think you'll find that same sort of structure everywhere in those kinds of facilities," she said. "But as a task force we were hearing that a lot of seniors were adverse to the idea of buying properties, so they preferred to rent. And some were also feeling they didn't need a meal service at this stage. The problem is, we have so few rentals, there aren't many other choices out there that are accessible to seniors."
In addition to affordable housing, other supports for seniors also need to be in place.
Long-term care is another area in which much needs to be done to prepare for the future, Scott said.
"We know there is a tsunami of Baby Boomers who will be hitting the long-term care (realm) in the next few years," she noted. "We estimate we're going to need 100 beds a year (within our health region) in order to keep up with the demand."
Scott noted there was a time when older residents were able to ease into their twilight years by getting a room at St. Mary's Villa, even when their level of care was fairly low. Now, because people are living much longer, there simply aren't enough beds available, even for those in need of a greater level of care.
"Some tough choices are being made," she said. "Some people are having to stay in their homes longer, and some would prefer to stay in their homes longer. Or they have to take a bed in another community. Sometimes couples have had to be split up, and that's really unfortunate. We never want to see that."
Scott agreed that most people would likely prefer to stay in their own homes for as long as is feasible, but again, our community must meet the challenges faced by those people as well, possibly by offering a greater level of volunteer-run services, such as that provided by Meals on Wheels. She said many seniors also need assistance driving into Saskatoon for medical appointments and such, so transportation is another important component to any long-term plan for addressing seniors' needs.
"One of our challenges is to ensure that we do have the level of supports that people need in order to stay in their home," Scott said. "And I don't think it's a question of accepting that the government will necessarily fill every need. I think there are lots of things that we can do as volunteers to help. That's one thing I would like to see the city try to coordinate, is more volunteer supports. I think we can make it possible for people to age comfortably in their homes if we can provide the volunteer services that are needed."
One problem with our volunteer force, however, is that the majority of those who do volunteer are seniors themselves. Scott would like to see a rejuvenation of our volunteer force, by getting younger people involved.
"I'd like to see high school students volunteering, and younger people, so that they're committed to it from an early age - that it's part of the choice that they make naturally," she said. " I think people get involved in volunteering once, and then you kind of get the bug. If we can get people started early enough, it may be an untapped resource."
