East Village seniors slowly trickling back to homes
“It’s pretty lonely these days,” says 75-year-old Gloria Campbell, whose East Village Place building was one of the first to welcome back tenants. “I miss all my friends. We don’t even know where some of them ended up — this isn’t a crowd that texts each other or even sends emails.”
To make her point, Campbell points to a 16-storey building across the avenue. “That’s Murdoch Manor, which has more than 300 residents,” she says. “They’re saying the folks that live there might not be able to get back in until mid-August.”
While much of Calgary has moved on post-flood, the seniors of East Village are still, for the most part, dispersed both in the city and around southern Alberta. Some of the 300 or so still displaced have found refuge at other city agencies or with family and friends; as well, a formerly vacant lodge in the town of Bashaw, 230 kilometres northeast of the city, is temporary home for 48, while another 60 have been spending the past few weeks as guests at Olds College.
“Of all the buildings, Murdoch Manor sustained the most damage,” says Lawrence Braul of Trinity Place Foundation, which manages four affordable seniors’ buildings in East Village as well as several others throughout the city and area. “All of its mechanical equipment was submerged — it’s a big undertaking.”
Braul, who was out at Bashaw and Olds on Wednesday to visit with tenants, says the unique requirements of the population necessitated a greater geographical area for housing. “We have about 30 staff that have been working flat out for more than a month,” he says, noting that residents staying in Bashaw and Olds went on a completely volunteer basis. “They’ve been doing an excellent job of housing tenants with very specific needs.”
Largely because they’ve been dispersed so far afield, Marilyn Johnson says her clients feel like the invisible flood victims. “Some have been telling me that Calgarians have been more concerned about the animals at the zoo than the seniors of East Village,” says Johnson, executive director of the Golden Age Club (thegoldenageclub.com).
To compensate for the forced isolation of an already isolated population, Johnson has been bringing in the residents by both bus and taxi for an expanded program of outings and gettogethers. “We have had support from the community, from alderman Druh Farrell and alderman Wayne Cao to the Red Cross and other local agencies,” she says, “but we still need to find ways to make our members feel like they’re still part of a community.”
To achieve that end, Johnson has been aided by longtime supporter Dave Howard, head of the Canadian Legacy Project (canadianlegacy.org). “The most poverty we see amongst seniors in our city is in the East Village,” says Howard, who in addition to hosting the annual Calgary Seniors Walk, a fundraiser for the Golden Age Club taking place Sept. 19, has been providing some of the funds for the recent morale-boosting events.
“They are just scrambling right now — their elevator is out, so that’s put a big dent in what they’re able to offer.”
Still, despite the uprooting and chaos of the past few weeks, some longtime East Villagers remain hopeful and even upbeat. “In time we’ll all be back together,” says Marilyn Edwards before getting back to her computer game. “And we’ll have lots of stories to share.”