New affordable units will help fill 'tremendous need' for seniors in Waterloo region

In an effort to fill a need for seniors in the community, a new retirement building under construction at Parkwood Seniors Communities in Waterloo,, Ont., will offer over two dozen affordable units.

Construction of the new building is set to wrap up in spring 2024, and of the 90 units it will offer, 28 will be affordable. 

"This new opportunity is really addressing the need of perhaps that senior who might otherwise be missed," Elaine Schantz, president and CEO of Fairview Parkwood Seniors Communities, said during a community event last week.

Schantz said the affordable units are through a partnership with the Region of Waterloo, providing funding to Parkwood to be able to offer the units at an affordable rate. The partnership will also guarantee the units will remain affordable for the next 50 years.

Schantz said the wait list for the affordable units is long.

"We know from the experience at our Fairview campus, where we have 123 affordable apartments, we know that it can take time to be able to acquire a unit," she said.

"We recognize it's a drop in the bucket, but it will serve seniors for 50 years."

Affordability in Waterloo region has become a growing challenge for many seniors, said Dave and Muriel Bechtel, who attended Parkwood's community event.

"The market has changed so dramatically, it goes up and down, and many don't know what they can afford and where they'll go," Muriel said.

Dave worked in the affordable housing sector in Toronto in the early 1980s and said there has always been a need for affordable units. 

"The first building I was involved with we had three times as many people on the list than we had units and they were ready to put money down, so there's always been tremendous need," he said.

But what he didn't see coming, was the situation getting worse in smaller municipalities like Waterloo region. He said many seniors are on fixed incomes and struggling.

"I would say in the last three years, the way rents have gone in the Waterloo region, there is twice as many who are struggling to meet the rent or more than that, that didn't before," he said. 

"Things have gone really wild. Impossible."

More seniors in need of affordable housing

The number of people and families — including seniors — who are in need of affordable units has substantially gone up across the region in the last five years.

At the end of 2022, there were 7,645 households on the wait list for a unit. Almost 1,800 households are seniors, said Jeffrey Schumacher, manager of affordable housing development for the region.

"That's about, more than a 50 per cent increase from 2016." 

Schumacher said it's become more expensive to own and rent a unit, especially in last two years, which has slowed down the turnover and availability of affordable units.

"That's resulted in our waiting list number increasing, as well as average wait times for the different types of households," he said.

Five years ago, the average wait time for a senior to get an affordable unit was three years, Schumacher said, but that now jumped to an average of six years or more.

"The number of seniors on our wait list will continue to grow as our population in general ages," he said.

Schumacher said the region is working to create more affordable housing through developers and the not-for-profit sector to encourage a wide variety of types of housing to be built.

Of the 2,500 affordable units the region plans to build by 2025, Schumacher said 1,825 units either completed or under construction. About 125 of those units are specifically for seniors.