Keith Light, 77, says he spent New Year’s Eve trying to get the engine of his recreational vehicle — outside a Walmart in East Vancouver — running to stay warm, while trying to imagine better times ahead.
“I just laid here and visualized B.C. Housing calling me and saying: ‘We have a place for you,’” said the former construction worker.
Light has been on B.C. Housing’s waiting list for subsidized housing for two years, and every time he contacts the agency, staff ask him to check back in another six months.
He is among a large population of elderly people living in poverty or are on its brink in B.C., where perennially high housing costs exacerbate countrywide cost-of-living woes.
We allowed and continue to allow the rich and the corporations to vacuum up our money at increasing rates while more people become marginalized.
In a post-scarcity world on the brink of climate ruin, how have we let them let us think this is an ok normal?
You gotta hope enough people get screwed to stand up against the bullshit or at least be bothered to show up and vote against the status quo
And yet people seem to be increasingly moving towards right governments and their “easy answers”, even though they almost invariably are neo-liberal, pro-corporation governments, and love to squash social safety nets and climate programs in favour of more breaks for the rich and their companies.
The media is also getting taken over by right wing interests, that peddle their side and push propaganda that pushes the Overton window further right.
They also make any “leftist” movement or bill as seeming way too extreme, while out the other side of their mouth are more than happy to make huge sweeping moves to little to no objection.
The right uses anger very effectively, and the left likes to take the high road, but I fear it’s going to be the end of us all. Any revolution is going to be too slow and too short or a movement at this rate.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Keith Light, 77, says he spent New Year’s Eve trying to get the engine of his recreational vehicle — outside a Walmart in East Vancouver — running to stay warm, while trying to imagine better times ahead.
He is among a large population of elderly people living in poverty or are on its brink in B.C., where perennially high housing costs exacerbate countrywide cost-of-living woes.
After selling it, relocating to Metro Vancouver and paying off debts, Light didn’t have much left, so he bought the RV for $19,000 while living on a monthly pension of $1,900.
seniors say rising costs of living coupled with stagnant government retirement incomes are pushing more elders into poverty and homelessness.
Carole Fawcett, a 75-year-old retired counsellor and freelance writer from Vernon, B.C., says it is “bizarre” she gets less than someone working 40 hours a week on minimum wage.
Laura Kadowaki, program and operations co-ordinator with United Way B.C., said the study was inspired by frontline service providers who described seniors in dire situations.
The original article contains 929 words, the summary contains 164 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
