At 62, Lawrence Ross was homeless and living day-to-day at a local emergency shelter. The East Coast native, who spent a good part of his first six decades either on the streets or in prison, couldn’t imagine having a permanent home until a visit to ’s mobile health clinic changed everything.
Recognizing his many needs, shelter and health care workers helped Ross find a supportive apartment at Cool Aid’s Olympic Vista, a 36-unit building on Carey Road, for people 55 years old and up. Once in his new home, Ross says it was the first time he felt “really safe” in a very long time.
Olympic Vista is one of five Cool Aid housing locations designated specifically for seniors, and all are desperately needed. According to the 2023 Greater Victoria Point-In-Time Count - a survey intended to provide a measure of people experiencing homelessness at a single point in time - one-quarter of people surveyed were seniors, and of those respondents, a shocking 37 per cent first experienced homelessness as a senior.
According to the count, certain senior populations - including singles, immigrants, Indigenous peoples and those with disabilities - are at even greater risk. Close to 60 per cent of Cool Aid supportive housing residents are seniors.
“Seniors continue to represent a growing percentage of the people we serve, both on the housing and health sides of our work,” explains Elin Bjarnason, CEO of Cool Aid. “Seniors have specific needs that are reflected in the overall population, but often to a greater degree.”
Bjarnason adds that most of Cool Aid’s senior residents, like Ross, rely heavily on the organization’s Community Health Centre, health outreach, meal programs and assistance with disability benefits and accessing proof of identification.
Ross, who was diagnosed with stomach cancer by a Cool Aid health team last year, says the connection to physical and mental health supports, in particular, has been a lifesaver.
“If I hadn’t connected with a Cool Aid doctor, first at the mobile clinic and then at the health centre, I wouldn’t know I had cancer…I’d be a lost cause,” Ross says.
Lost causes are exactly what Cool Aid is trying to prevent in supporting seniors like Ross.
“At this time of year we are reminded how very many seniors face the holidays - and really every day - alone and without the resources they need to have happier, healthier and more connected lives,” Bjarnason says. “I think it’s very telling, and sad, that Cool Aid started as a youth hostel 56 years ago and is now mostly serving seniors.”
Currently, seniors at Cool Aid’s supportive housing sites have access to life skills assistance, healthy meals, primary care, counselling and mental health supports, harm reduction and connection to treatment and recovery. Many of these programs have made a life-changing difference to seniors like Ross.
“This place is full of angels, but you have to let them help you,” Ross says. “When you’ve finally had enough and you’re tired of being broken, Cool Aid is the place. And then it’s what you do with the opportunity that matters.”
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