Seniors’ lodges getting aid for upgrades
Advocates say province’s $2.4M grant isn’t enough to fix problems in neglected program
The province has provided a $2.4million grant to upgrade publiclyfunded seniors’ lodges, but advocates say the money isn’t enough to address problems in the system.
The grant amounts to $235 for each of the roughly 9,000 lodge units in Alberta, and can be used for updating anything from emergency systems to flooring, banisters or handrails in bathrooms.
Irene Martin, executive director of the Alberta Senior Citizens’ Housing Association, said money will help, but the 50-year-old lodge program is a political “orphan” languishing.
“The local lodge providers have been getting by, but some of those buildings are more than 50 years old and this maintenance grant comes nowhere near to addressing the issue in the long term,” she said. “It is a little bit of a boost to address some of the most pressing concerns.”
The lodge system, set up in the 1950s, is designed to accommodate healthy, independent seniors who can no longer maintain a home. Services typically include meals, laundry, cleaning and recreation, though some also offer basic health and personal care services.
Lodges are publicly funded and operated by municipal “management bodies” established by the province. Funding comes from three sources: fees charged to seniors, municipalities and the province’s Seniors Lodge Program, which is effectively a subsidy for low-income seniors. The program provides $8.75 per resident per day. The cost to the province will be $36 million in 2011-12.
Residents are typically in their 80s and with a low income, Martin said. The law requires their fees be low enough that they are left with at least $265 in disposable income at the end of the month.
In recent years, as the province focused on building more continuing care facilities, Martin said the lodges struggled.
“There’s no long-term plan, there’s no vision,” Martin said. “They’ve lumped the lodge program in with this whole continuing care system. In some communities, they’ve built newer continuing care facilities, and it’s emptied out the lodges, so the municipalities are paying more deficits,” she said, adding that other communities have waiting lists.
“Some of the buildings are so old they will cost $10 million to repair. … Do they burn it down? Do they lose their asset? We need some future vision.”
Bob Barss, president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, said the grant is a welcome infusion of much-needed cash, but that the rural municipalities he represents need more. “The ongoing maintenance of the lodges is a huge cost to municipalities,” he said. “As the lodges get older, the maintenance goes up. We don’t believe that municipalities alone should be required to cover all the deficits.”
Barss said the association has lobbied the province to give lodges the ability to access low-interest financing through the Alberta Capital Financing Authority. The province has been reluctant, he said, fearing municipalities will take on too much debt.
Seniors ministry spokesman Robert Storrier said the money for the grant was the surplus from the 2011-12 Seniors’ Lodge Program budget.
He said that in May 2011 the province consulted with lodges and other interested people and identified four basic areas of concern, all of which are being addressed.
The province is “identifying sources of funding to address critical needs,” Storrier said, and is working with Municipal Affairs to upgrade the lodges. The government has set aside $10 million to improve the lodge in Bonnyville and $18 million to fix up the lodge in Fort Saskatchewan, Storrier said.
The province is also in the process of appointing a standing committee to review the lodge program, which hasn’t been updated since 1988.