By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Local non-profit Desert Sun Counselling is sounding the alarm over the growing trend of food insecurity, precarious housing, and homelessness amongst seniors in Osoyoos and Oliver.
Marieze Tarr, executive director of Desert Sun Counselling, along with her staff, have an instant read on the pulse of the two communities and are deeply concerned.
“I’m really worried and it’s concerning to me thinking that we are living in a first world society where we should be able to look after our most vulnerable and our seniors who have contributed to our society over the course of their lives.”
The situation has become so dire that Desert Sun Counselling has expanded its soup kitchen in Osoyoos to cater to this growing need from seniors and likewise will soon be doing the same in Oliver.
“This is something we are concerned about and have been for a while and that’s the fact that our seniors are really struggling. A lot of them are struggling with food security,” Tarr told the Times Chronicle.
A growing number of seniors cannot afford food, medication, heating, or their rent or a combination of these, and as a result are being forced to make desperate decisions.
“They have to choose between their medication or food on the table. A lot of seniors are choosing between whether to buy food and having a place to live.”
“What we’re seeing in the winter is a lot of seniors living in RVs and they don’t have money to pay for the propane for heat. Those are the things we are seeing on a daily basis here,” she says.
Desert Sun’s Community/Soup Kitchen that is already operating in Osoyoos for moms, dads and children has now been expanded in scope to address this growing need from seniors.
“We’re hoping that not just families but also seniors who struggle with food security will access that service.” She says the plan is to also do some outreach with deliveries of any excess soup they might have. This is in an effort to respond to a number of people in the community they know are struggling with food security but are perhaps unable to get out to the soup kitchen.
“So there’s food security, and who knows where the rental market is going to go, but certainly what we are seeing is our seniors are struggling with that.”
On the day that Times Chronicle spoke to Tarr, her office had just counselled a senior couple desperately looking for more affordable housing.
“A huge trend that we’re seeing is seniors who are at risk of homelessness and never before have I seen this,” she says.
Another insidious aspect of the housing and rental crisis is that many seniors are living in marginal housing situations.
“I think it is a hidden problem in that a lot of our seniors are precariously housed. They are housed in less than, I would say, liveable conditions.”
This includes many seniors who are living in places that are not heated properly, that are wet, that are leaking and they can’t afford to pay for the heating,” Tarr says.
She adds that quite a number of seniors have come to the Desert Sun offices during the cold weather because the places they live are basically unheated. During the cold snap in December, Desert Sun had to find places to send seniors to simply ensure that they survived the cold.
“There’s a lot of that and then a lot of seniors who are living in motel rooms which is not an optimal way of life,” she says, adding that in many cases this means no cooking facilities.
Tarr agrees that in Osoyoos this is a hidden problem partly because of the fact the town is a haven for often relatively well-off retirees which obscures the reality of many seniors with lesser means.
“It’s definitely hidden, you don’t see people living on the street but we are dealing with these seniors who are really struggling and are precariously housed and not in the conditions that you or I would want to live in,” she says.
In Oliver where the United Church currently operates a soup kitchen, there is a coming gap as the church has been sold.
To help fill this void, Desert Sun is currently in the “very, very beginning stages,” of partnering with the Oliver Free Masons to upgrade the kitchen at the Masonic Hall in order to host the Community Soup Kitchen.
The United Church’s weekly soup kitchen will cease operations this spring, and Tarr says they hope to have the Masonic Hall kitchen up and running by April or May.
The free Community Soup Kitchen is held at the Grace Lutheran Church at 6 Finch St. in Osoyoos every Thursday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
