Feature

TheReview — “Weilaasday May 23, 1990. == B10

Elderly couple resorts to life in a Sa.

by Mare Davis
The Review

Life can be tough when you're
old and disabled and have no
where to live except a beat-up car
in a provincial campground.

That is the plight of two long-
time Peninsula residents who can-
not afford local rental accommo-
dation prices.

Ted Anderson, 64, and his wife
Betty, 71, who is legally blind,
have been living in Sidney’s
McDonald Park provincial camp-
site in a 1976 Ford stationwagon
since the start of the month.

The pair had to leave a two-
bedroom apartment on Fifth Street
in Sidney because the rent was
raised to $575 per month from
$525, which was beyond their
means, they said.

“We had only been there for two
months when the landlord hiked
the rent up. And the place was a
dump. We even had to pay the
heating bill ourselves,” Ted said.

Betore converting their car into
a make-shift home, the Andersons
had spent three years moving from
one apartment to another as they
tried to keep one step ahead of
upwardly spiralling rental prices.

“Wherever we went, they kept
on raising the rent each time. So
we had to keep moving on in
search of a cheaper place to live,”
Betty said.

Only three years ago the couple
were living comfortably in a one-
bedroom apartment in Sidney for
$350 per month.

The couple had hoped that
rental prices on Saltspring Island
and Pender Island would not be so
quick to follow the same trend as
those on lower Vancouver Island,
Ted said.

But the situation on the Gulf
Islands soon became just as bad,
he said.

“The last apartment we stayed
at on Saltspring went up to $500.a
month and it didn’t even have
heating. We were freezing to death.
And we both have arthritis,” Betty
said.

After serving in the army and

the merchant navy during the
Second World War, Ted became a
shipwright and worked in the Vic-
toria dockyards and in Sidney for
about 30 years, he said.

But Anderson hasn’t worked in
the last decade after breaking his
back in a horse-riding accident, he
said. .
“I'm unemployable because of
my back and my wife is blind. So,
between her pension and my disa-
bility payments, we have $1,400 to
get by on every month. And it isn’t
easy these days,” Anderson said.

The Andersons said they -

received food from the Lions/
Review Food Bank last week and
on other occasions because so
much of their income is spent on
paying the rent and heating bills.

The government is not doing
enough to help senior citizens
keep up with the escalating cost of
living, Ted said.

“The government hasn’t taken
steps toward helping senior citi-
zens with the housing problem.
We're not the only ones in this
situation and frankly, we don’t

FORCED TO CAMP OUT by high rents are seniors Ted ond Betty Sy ANCHOn,

know who in the government to

who have been

living in McDonald Park provincial campsite since the start of this month.

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a
tur to for help,” he said. appliances for $299 a month,
The Sidney branch of the Minis- which we can definitely afford,” |
try of Social Services is aware of Ted said.
the Anderson’s ongoing crisis but Though they have some reserva-
is powerless to provide any further tions about moving so far away. ,
income assistance, acting district from Vancouver Island, the elderly :
Supervisor Sharon Bell said. couple said they are happy that ;
~ We can refer people like thisto they will no longer have to live
government agencies like B-C. “from hand’ to mouth.”
Housing but it’s really hard’ to Betty hopes she will once again
place them anywhere,” she said. _be able to keep a seeing-eye dog to
However, the couple may qual- help her to move about more
ify for relocation expenses tomove safely. =
to another part of the province, Her last dog died two years ago |
Bell said. and she says she hasn*t been able
The couple is planning to move to take on the responsibility of a
to the B.C. Interior as soon as _ caring for another one because of
possible, where the cost of living insecurity caused by their present
is expected to be lower. Theyre lifestyle.
anxiously awaiting the arrival of THe Andersons said they re
their next monthly social assis- hoping that a move to Logan Lake
tance and pension cheques. will at last help them to escape
“Logan Lake is offering one- from “greedy landlords and high
bedroom apartments with two rents” for their remaining years.
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