Volunteer housing counsellor Joanne smiles as she leans on her walker outside a mall in New Westminster.
It’s been a long haul, but life is much easier than a few years ago, when everything suddenly spiraled downhill. A bad fall, an angina attack and diabetes forced her to retire from her job as a medical office assistant, and about the same time, her sister passed away.
“It was a bad year,” says Joanne, now 66. She’d been living with her sister for 10 years and after her death, found out just how hard it was to find a place she could afford in the Lower Mainland.
Joanne moved into a basement suite, living on Employment Insurance until it ran out, then moving onto welfare. She put her name on the BC Housing list for subsidized housing, but finally gave up after two years of fruitless waiting. In the meantime, she shared an apartment with another woman, but finally decided she needed a place of her own.
Joanne turned to Century House, which offers counseling for seniors, and to Seniors Services Society, which is funded by United Way of the Lower Mainland. They helped sort out her finances, get her a disability allowance, and gave useful housing advice.
As a result, she now lives in Dunwood Place, a home for seniors living independently, but also offering a support system. “I love it there,” says Joanne.
Joanne has always enjoyed helping people and now wanted to give back to the community. In the fall of 2008, she took the Housing Counsellor Training course, funded by the United Way. She’s a volunteer housing counsellor and on the Seniors Services Society’s executive board.
“I can understand what people are going through. It can be tough finding housing,” she says.
