These modifications are usually not possible to do in rental accommodation, so the people who are most challenged economically are not able to acquire these modifications, but even when those modifications are possible and affordable, they are needed only for a very short period of time, so their value is undermined. Undertaking those kinds of drastic modifications—say, widening doorways when you're trying to create a bathroom that's accessible out of one that's not—often undermines the long-term resale value of these properties as well, which for larger family groups that are also economically disadvantaged causes another problem.
There is also the increase in informal care cost by family members when older family members are in inappropriate housing and need additional care, and that further erodes financial capacity.
The reality is that many seniors end up in hospital or long-term care because their home cannot support their needs. They're the so-called bed-blockers. This can also be very expensive, not only to seniors and their families but also to society as a whole.
The age-in-place housing project that I have attached is an attempt to address these problems. Although it's not specifically a poverty reduction scheme, it does address the needs of affordability in this age category. You see before you a prototype for a prefabricated modular portable temporarily leased project.
Let me go back through that. It's prefabricated, so it's mass-produced, so we get the costs down. It's modular, so the interior can be specifically adapted to the medical and mobility needs of each particular resident. It's portable, in that it's designed to be placed in the backyard of almost any house in Canada, and it is temporary, so it's only there for the time period it is needed.
We're doing a first-generation test in the community this fall. If that proves to be successful, we'll start thinking about what the business model might be, but it would be centrally owned as a public/private partnership, a private corporation, or a public corporation, so they would centrally own it and lease it to the individual. Just as you don't have to pay for an expensive IV pump or an oxygen concentrator or a wheelchair, you simply use it for the time you need it, and there might be some sort of pay arrangement. That's the same situation we would have here.
Our hope is that in the long term, either as part of an affordability strategy or as part of a health care provision, there might be some sort of copay arrangement that would offset that cost. You'll see on page 2 how this might be arranged on a lot where there is a street in the backyard. It would arrive by truck. It's about 420 square feet and it would be placed in the backyard with an umbilical cord connection to the house.
We foresee that this could either be at an older person's house—the person can no longer live in it and moves into the backyard then rents out their house—or it could be a family member's house, and they live in the backyard. It could be two friends, both of whom are elderly, and one can no longer manage, so the couple moves in behind. It could be a true third-party situation, where someone who is interested might rent out their property in a similar way to home day cares and that sort of thing.
I see my time is up. Thank you very much.