Letters: Saskatoon needs affordable housing options for older adults

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According to an analysis by Environics Analytics for CTV News, by 2043, one in four Canadians will be 65 years or older. Today, in Saskatoon, we see seniors living in their vehicles or on the streets.

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With the rising cost of housing, the low-income housing waiting list continues to grow and, with no available units, the opportunity to come in from the cold may be far off.

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Everyone deserves access to safe and affordable housing. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, housing is one of the key social determinants of health.

Stable housing has been associated with increased health and well-being, greater capacity for social participation and community connection. Insecure, poor-quality and unaffordable housing contributes to social exclusion, poverty and lack of stability.

The shortage of low-cost housing requires older adults to occupy low-quality and unstable housing or to go without. Some of our seniors are couch surfing to avoid living on the streets, but this can leave them vulnerable to abuse or mistreatment.

We need to call on the city to create a shelter aimed at serving older adults with the greatest needs. We must also call on our government to address the lack of low-income or affordable housing options for insecure older adults.

To ensure the housing needs of an aging population are met, more money should be invested in home care services and affordable social housing.

To accomplish this, we need to see more intersectional co-operation between all levels of government, with municipal, provincial and federal governments taking the lead on health-care initiatives and the development of age-friendly communities.

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Nicole Lillico, Saskatoon

Address Canada’s flaws to rebuild better

Re “Canada can’t ever trust Trump again” (SP, Feb. 6).

Tasha Kheiriddin is right with the point of her title. Although one wonders at the necessity of the word “again” — we had enough reason to be wary of this administration the first time around.

But she is quite wrong to flog her hobby horse that somehow the work of truth and reconciliation in this country is the work of haters (a position that shows up repeatedly in her editorials).

She proclaims that everyone who comes to Canada has a right to a good life. But she denies that to First Nations, whose treaties (at least on the Prairies) permit the rest of us to live here.

She thinks that uncovering and removing the wrongs of the past, and rebuilding with truer, stronger materials, is somehow disloyal. But isn’t that what Canadian builders do every day in housing renovation?

Isn’t that what was done with the national residence of 24 Sussex Drive? — removing the asbestos and lead that was used in an earlier era, because we now know how harmful it is?

Yes, Canada is a beautiful land. And yes, it’s a place where people of many nations should be able to flourish. Indigenous people I know are fine with that.

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But we also know that there are flaws in the foundations of this country, in the fundamental relationship between the host Indigenous nations and the rest of us. These flaws need to be addressed now, because as a renovation job, it’s only going to get harder the longer we put it off.

Randy Klassen, Saskatoon

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