Thank you very much.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Alberta.
I am an architect and I am here to speak about an innovative housing option that we are developing as part of a research project for seniors. It has applicability to poverty reduction.
I will provide a little background before I speak to the images you have in the package I provided.
According to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' report in 2015 entitled “Seniors and Housing: The Challenge Ahead”, we are facing not only a wave of seniors but a wave of seniors who are increasingly challenged with poverty.
For a bit of context, there are currently five million adults over 65, and by 2036 that number will become 10 million. On average, housing affordability affects older seniors more severely than it does younger seniors, which makes sense. To put that in some context, in Edmonton, for example, the population aged 80 and over is going to increase 266% between 2006 and 2041.
Housing affordability is a particularly acute challenge in Canada's largest urban communities, where there is a higher concentration of poor households led by seniors. According to the FCM report, 23.4% of Canadian senior-led households currently face housing affordability challenges. Almost half—48.1%—of senior renters are living in unaffordable housing. By contrast, 15% of senior-led homeowners in Canada face affordability challenges, usually because those people own their own homes.
Affordability challenges extend beyond just the cost or provision of the housing, and that's my interest as an architect. The reality is that most Canadian homes, whether they're owned or rented and whether they're apartments or single-family houses, are not designed to meet the needs of seniors, particularly when they develop mobility and other health concerns. These homes require modifications to accommodate aging in place, which is difficult and expensive, and which further decreases affordability.