Housing crisis leaves Calgary elder abuse shelter clients scrambling

With an influx of provincial funding, the Kerby Centre recently added six more beds to the city's only elder abuse shelter — but the team still has to turn away seniors experiencing abuse because clients are struggling to find a safe, affordable place to live and move forward.

A shortage of subsidized housing in Calgary, paired with skyrocketing rents for market units, means clients in the shelter are sometimes staying double the length of time that the shelter is set up for.

Larry Mathieson, CEO of Unison at Kerby Centre, says the shelter is geared to be a 30 to 90 day placement. That isn't the case today, and Mathieson says the housing crisis is a major factor.

"We actually just had a woman who is our longest stay at the shelter, and she was with us just a little over a year," said Mathieson, who noted she was a new Canadian and faced extra barriers, but found housing last week.

He says demand for subsidized seniors' housing is so high that it can take four to six weeks just for partner housing organizations to review applications.

Abuse survivors can then face another six to nine month waiting list, he says.

That wait can be even longer for the shelter's younger clients.

"Most of the organizations that we work with would say, 'Well, if somebody is under 65, you can by default add at least five years onto that list because we have such a backlog of people who are 65 and over,'" said Mathieson.

"It's just there's such a lack right now of housing, it creates a lack of movement in the system."

The shelter's new beds should help reduce the amount of people they have to turn away, says Mathieson, but demand for the shelter is also rising.

He attributes that to Calgary's aging population, as well as affordability and housing struggles among the wider population. 

"The increase in inflation, the increase in the cost of housing — all of those things create additional economic and social stress. So I think we see more cases of any type of abuse."

'Who knows how long they'll be waiting?'

Cassandra, whose real name CBC News is not using to protect her identity from her abusers, wound up at the Kerby Centre's elder abuse shelter about three months ago.

The 67-year-old was recovering from a major surgery at a rehabilitation care home when she realized that she was being emotionally and financially abused by the people she was previously living with — people whom she believed were her friends.

"I was scared and I just felt very uncomfortable. I thought, 'I just can't do it.' So I was welcome here and I'm very, very grateful for that."

Now, nearly three months in, Cassandra says she's aware she's about to surpass the time frame for clients to stay in shelter, but she has nowhere to go.

She says she's on nine waitlists for subsidized housing with no estimate for how long she could be waiting.

"It's really frustrating. You're displaced, you're trying to find housing, you're doing everything you can and they're doing everything they can. But there's not a lot out there," she said.

She often thinks about other seniors experiencing abuse, waiting for shelter space, she says.

"Who knows how long they'll be waiting before they're able to access help, and that is really sad."

Cassandra says she would like to see the province open up more subsidized housing units — in both new and existing buildings — and introduce a cap on how much rents can increase.

As for Mathieson with the Kerby Centre, he says he's optimistic about solutions the province is working on, but the situation won't improve until more affordable housing is built to keep up with demand.

According to an emailed statement from Heather Barlow, press secretary for Alberta's minister of seniors, community and social services, one in 10 Alberta seniors experience elder abuse.

"Alberta's government is investing $2.25 million over the next three years into a new Safe Spaces program. We are working with community partners and operators of seniors' lodges in rural Alberta and Indigenous communities to provide spaces for seniors leaving abusive living situations."