The Golden years ....or NOT. When Living in Government Assisted Housing is your only choice. Toronto Housing, Woodgreen, etc.
Most of us dream about Retirement..When I retire, I will....( you fill in the blank). Sometimes we get to Retirement, and because of various things that have happened in our Life, we may have to apply for Government assisted Housing. This is where you live in a building where your Rent is capped at a certain amount, depending on your annual income.
The Government of Canada says that they are committed to keeping Seniors in their own Homes as long as possible. What does this mean?
Well, it depends.
Depends on whether or not you can advocate for yourself, or if you have a Family member that can advocate on your behalf.
Depends on whether you can relinquish control of some details of your Life to someone else, i.e. are you going to be fighting the very people trying to help you?
Depends on how healthy or unwell you are.
Depends on whether you have your eyesight, your hearing, if you can walk, if you are of sound mind and body....
And the list goes on...and on....
What will you be dealing with in Government assisted Housing?
Long wait times to get in.
Every year, in order to qualify for the lower rents ( below market value) a representative from Toronto Housing ( if you are in Toronto), you will have to submit personal financial information such as Bank statements, and Income Tax assessments to prove that your income is indeed at a level that qualifies you for the lower rents. This in itself is quite traumatizing to older persons who are at an age when simple, everyday tasks are becoming difficult. Let's say you are deaf and can't hear what is being said, and you don't know sign language. Or you are blind, you speak to a Housing representative and they shove your paperwork back in the wrong file. Then your paperwork isn't filed by the deadline, or not filed at all. Next thing you get a letter stating they are cutting off your Old Age security payments ( From CRA). You panic, and try to phone CRA. This involves waiting on the phone for hours, going around in circles ...press 1 for....,press 2 for......., press 3 to return to the main menu. You can easily wait for 45 minutes on the phone and still not get through.
You go through this procedure at 5 to 9 every morning, hoping to get through to Revenue Canada. You note the message telling you to sign up for on-line services, but you are 84 years old, and have never used a computer. You ponder to yourself, why is it so difficult to get through to CRA on the phone?
So, we tell ourselves , it's not that bad. sToronto Housing has redone Bathrooms in some of these buildings, making them completely accessible for someone in a wheelchair. They have also installed automatic door openers on some housing units, so that a senior can open their front door with a remote. These are all good things.
The not so good things. Would you like a roach with your cereal today? The buildings have roaches. Yes, you read that correctly, roaches. When you mention this to Maintenance in the Building, they say, it's just happening in your apartment. Pest control services come along, and sprays, and they don't spray under the stove and fridge in the kitchen. Your children come to visit, and are appalled to see a cereal bowl which you just took out of the cupboard, with a live roach in it. They pull a towel from the stove to dry the dishes, and 2 roaches leap out. You freak out, and wonder how can this be happening? After all, we are in Canada, not in some third-world country.
Yet, you have nowhere else to go. You refuse to be a burden to your children.
Then there is Woodgreen. As far as we can understand, this is a Home-care company which has been contracted out by LHIN.. to provide home care to persons living in Assisted Income-subsidized Housing. Of course it's all about saving money. The Government gives with one hand and takes away with the other hand. In an effort to save money,. the most recent move has been to up the subsidized rates seniors pay for in-home Help, from $1.00 an hour to $16.00 an hour.
That is an increase of $15.00 per hour of Homecare. Is the Senior supposed to go knocking on the door of Tim Horton's or perhaps Wal-mart, give me a job so I can pay for my Homecare. Not too many want to hire a Senior in their 80's who have Health problems.
So what happens? I can't pay for my Care, so I have no Homecare, except for we believe maybe 2 hours a week...? No-one is really sure how all of this works. It's a hot mess. One official admitted that he doesn't really know how it all works....
Not to mention the endless litany of request from Woodgreen, produce this document, we need this, give us this other document. All concerning a Senior whose annual income is way below the poverty line in Ontario of $19,930.00. Let's get a grip, we're not talking about some globe-trotting senior in a Corvette. Just a senior who is in ill-health, with a low income.
Is this what we have to look forward to in our Golden years? As we are approaching a time when Aging Baby Boomers will all become 65 around the same time period.... Happy Birthday, or not ?
All the more incentive to take better care of yourself today, eat healthier, stop smoking, spend less, walk more, so you can be in better shape and not at the mercy of Government agencies, Housing agencies, and long-term care facilities.
The Government of Canada says that they are committed to keeping Seniors in their own Homes as long as possible. What does this mean?
Well, it depends.
Depends on whether or not you can advocate for yourself, or if you have a Family member that can advocate on your behalf.
Depends on whether you can relinquish control of some details of your Life to someone else, i.e. are you going to be fighting the very people trying to help you?
Depends on how healthy or unwell you are.
Depends on whether you have your eyesight, your hearing, if you can walk, if you are of sound mind and body....
And the list goes on...and on....
What will you be dealing with in Government assisted Housing?
Long wait times to get in.
Every year, in order to qualify for the lower rents ( below market value) a representative from Toronto Housing ( if you are in Toronto), you will have to submit personal financial information such as Bank statements, and Income Tax assessments to prove that your income is indeed at a level that qualifies you for the lower rents. This in itself is quite traumatizing to older persons who are at an age when simple, everyday tasks are becoming difficult. Let's say you are deaf and can't hear what is being said, and you don't know sign language. Or you are blind, you speak to a Housing representative and they shove your paperwork back in the wrong file. Then your paperwork isn't filed by the deadline, or not filed at all. Next thing you get a letter stating they are cutting off your Old Age security payments ( From CRA). You panic, and try to phone CRA. This involves waiting on the phone for hours, going around in circles ...press 1 for....,press 2 for......., press 3 to return to the main menu. You can easily wait for 45 minutes on the phone and still not get through.
You go through this procedure at 5 to 9 every morning, hoping to get through to Revenue Canada. You note the message telling you to sign up for on-line services, but you are 84 years old, and have never used a computer. You ponder to yourself, why is it so difficult to get through to CRA on the phone?
So, we tell ourselves , it's not that bad. sToronto Housing has redone Bathrooms in some of these buildings, making them completely accessible for someone in a wheelchair. They have also installed automatic door openers on some housing units, so that a senior can open their front door with a remote. These are all good things.
The not so good things. Would you like a roach with your cereal today? The buildings have roaches. Yes, you read that correctly, roaches. When you mention this to Maintenance in the Building, they say, it's just happening in your apartment. Pest control services come along, and sprays, and they don't spray under the stove and fridge in the kitchen. Your children come to visit, and are appalled to see a cereal bowl which you just took out of the cupboard, with a live roach in it. They pull a towel from the stove to dry the dishes, and 2 roaches leap out. You freak out, and wonder how can this be happening? After all, we are in Canada, not in some third-world country.
Yet, you have nowhere else to go. You refuse to be a burden to your children.
Then there is Woodgreen. As far as we can understand, this is a Home-care company which has been contracted out by LHIN.. to provide home care to persons living in Assisted Income-subsidized Housing. Of course it's all about saving money. The Government gives with one hand and takes away with the other hand. In an effort to save money,. the most recent move has been to up the subsidized rates seniors pay for in-home Help, from $1.00 an hour to $16.00 an hour.
That is an increase of $15.00 per hour of Homecare. Is the Senior supposed to go knocking on the door of Tim Horton's or perhaps Wal-mart, give me a job so I can pay for my Homecare. Not too many want to hire a Senior in their 80's who have Health problems.
So what happens? I can't pay for my Care, so I have no Homecare, except for we believe maybe 2 hours a week...? No-one is really sure how all of this works. It's a hot mess. One official admitted that he doesn't really know how it all works....
Not to mention the endless litany of request from Woodgreen, produce this document, we need this, give us this other document. All concerning a Senior whose annual income is way below the poverty line in Ontario of $19,930.00. Let's get a grip, we're not talking about some globe-trotting senior in a Corvette. Just a senior who is in ill-health, with a low income.
Is this what we have to look forward to in our Golden years? As we are approaching a time when Aging Baby Boomers will all become 65 around the same time period.... Happy Birthday, or not ?
All the more incentive to take better care of yourself today, eat healthier, stop smoking, spend less, walk more, so you can be in better shape and not at the mercy of Government agencies, Housing agencies, and long-term care facilities.
So does someone from Toronto Housing, LHIN, or Woodgreen want to respond and explain the big mess that our income-assisted long-term Health Care is in?
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