Now as an 'official elder myself, having just turned 65, I am undertaking a never-before-charted sailing route: an extreme elder solo expedition to confront the ugly plight of elder homelessness in Canada. In a country as immensely wealthy as ours, the fact that we allow our seniors to be abandoned to the streets is a catastrophic moral and societal failure.
On any given night, over 20,000 elders are homeless in Canada - let that sink in for a minute - and that appalling number only scratches the surface. It excludes the 'hidden elder homeless' who are reduced to couch surfing or freezing in their cars just to survive. Adults over 50 are now the fastest-growing homeless demographic in our country, making up nearly one-third (33%) of the entire unhoused population. Our elders built this country; leaving them behind is unforgivable. How are we not collectively screaming about this?
