Why We Care:

• The downtown core, including downtown east and downtown south, is home to a vast population of low-income seniors.
  
  
• Our seniors receive minimal financial support from the government, and often no support from family members.
  
  
• For the truly impoverished seniors of Vancouver, although their living space is often no larger than 10 square feet, there is little motivation to venture outside their tiny living quarters.
  
  
• Most do not have adequate cooking facilities and must rely on one hotplate for all their cooking needs. Some people do not even have a fridge
  
  
• Their bathrooms are often shared facilities with an average of 25 people to one bathroom.
  
  
• Many seniors live in isolation with no one to visit and care for them except other neighbours who are also struggling with poverty issues.
  
  
• The average life expectancy for people in the DTES is 57 years. That's why the designated age for seniors in this community is 45 years old.
  
  
• There is often no extra money for traveling about town as well as a fear of judgment about their poverty if they leave the community.
  
  
• These seniors are left to live their final years in solitude and hardship - forgotten by the world around them.