‘We have nowhere to go.’ A lack of housing options is keeping some seniors from downsizing — could this approach help?

Kate Chung and her husband have lived in three homes over the last 26 years. The couple, 82 and 88, respectively, has downsized from a three-storey house to the main floor of a duplex to a condo — and they still can’t find an accessible place to live.
Despite the $18,000 they spent making changes to their condo, Chung says safety risks remain: the shower replacing the old bath tub still has a five-inch lip, leaving a tripping hazard, and the washer and dryer they installed to replace their linen closet is stacked because there’s no room to have them placed more safely, side-by-side. The doors are too narrow to accommodate walkers and canes if and when they need them, and it’ll be impossible to create a wheel-out balcony should they ever need a wheelchair.
Having dealt with broken bones, joint replacements and other surgeries over the years, Chung worries she and her husband could struggle if their mobility needs change in the future and fall.
Across the country, baby boomers are getting older, retiring and becoming empty nesters. But most seniors and baby boomers in Toronto aren’t downsizing — a trend that will likely contribute to continued hardship for millennials searching for houses and lowrise apartments, according to a City of Toronto report analyzing housing occupancy trends. 
And while the decision to stay has to do with seniors wanting to age in their homes and in their communities, it’s also largely because there are few, if any, better options.
“We have nowhere to go,” Chung said.
Advocates say seniors want to be immersed in their communities — with access to their neighbours and services, surrounded by people of all ages — while maintaining their autonomy where possible. 
“We need to be in the community with the living, not alone in an apartment effectively exiled from the community,” said Sal Amenta, co-chair of the Accessible Housing Network.
To achieve this, they say their homes, and homes in their neighbourhoods, need to be fully accessible or adaptable to accessibility needs. They believe seniors need options with Universal Design — an approach that aims to accommodate people of all ages that can adapt to changing needs and abilities. Universal Design would ensure doors, for instance, are lightweight, with a lever handle and wide so they take minimal effort to open and are accessible for people with mobility devices. In the kitchen, there could be adjustable-height countertops or pre-installed wiring so someone can easily adjust features in the future. 
Young, able-bodied people can live in homes with Universal Design, too, advocates say, and the adaptability of the structure will allow them to age in place while avoiding the hospital.
In 2022, 40 per cent of seniors reported having a disability, while 27 per cent of Canadians 15 and older reported being disabled. Among seniors, pain, mobility and flexibility were the most common types of disability.
Yet in Ontario, the building code only requires 15 per cent of units in new residential buildings to have some accessibility features; and advocates say the standards are not high enough or widespread enough to adequately meet the needs of the aging population.
“You can get in to visit somebody, you can enter through the door. You can go in the living room and have a cup of tea, and if you’re lucky, you can use the washroom. You cannot live there,” said Chung, who co-founded the Accessible Housing Network. “The kitchen is not accessible. All the doorways are not accessible. There’s no wheel-in shower, there’s no wheel-out balcony.”
When older adults can’t find the accessibility they need, they face dire risks to their health. Falls are the primary cause of injury hospitalizations and injury deaths among seniors in Canada.
If the province only requires a small portion of units to have accessibility features, it means those with mobility needs can’t access most homes in their communities — not to mention houses and duplexes, which are mostly exempt from accessibility requirements. This raises another mental and physical health issue: loneliness. Research has shown it can be detrimental to someone’s health and lifespan.
Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing did not respond to the Star’s questions about accessibility requirements.
Without accessible housing, some seniors may be left to consider retirement homes or long-term care homes, but not even these settings are all accessible, said seniors advocate Laura Tamblyn Watts.
“That’s not only incredibly expensive and a terrible use of resources, but actually what nobody wants, least of all older people,” said Tamblyn Watts, president and CEO of senior advocacy group CanAge.
Only a small percentage of seniors will ever be in a congregate environment, Tamblyn Watts said, and those who go only stay for a couple years on average. Seniors who live in Ontario’s retirement homes tend to be those with the greatest health needs, and they’re mostly waiting for long-term-care spots, she added.
When it comes to nursing homes, advocates said residents often feel they have no autonomy and their needs go unaddressed due to staffing limitations. They can also be relocated to homes they don’t want to go to. 
When the Daniels Corporation sought feedback from residents in their condominiums some 10 years ago, calls for more accessibility emerged. People wanted power-operated doors, lower light switches, or more clearance in certain spaces.
“It would be very, very costly to kind of do the modifications that some of these people were looking for,” said COO Jake Cohen. “But it got us thinking that we need to go beyond the building code.”
Over the next couple years, Daniels — which redeveloped Regent Park and has several projects throughout the GTA — created an Accessibility Designed Program to provide a higher standard of accessibility in 15 per cent of their units. The design includes roll-in showers and rollout balconies, power-operated doors and wider doors at no extra cost.
“Should it be more costly to lower a countertop in a kitchen? Absolutely not. The cabinetry is actually smaller. Maybe it should cost less,” Cohen said. “Is it any more expensive to have wider doors throughout an entire unit? No.”
The new accessible units found widespread success with seniors looking to age in place, disabled people and investors searching for unique properties, Cohen added.
Later, the developer wanted to share its “tool box” for accessible housing and spearheaded the Accelerating Accessibility Coalition (AAC) with the Urban Land Institute two years ago. Members of the expanding group include developers, accessibility advocates and civic groups.
Luke Anderson, a founding co-chair of AAC, stressed that accessibility advocates need “industry buy-in.”
“We need developers and builders and constructors, designers to be choosing specifications and turning to standards that go above and beyond building code,” he said.
Toronto is taking steps forward, as well. As part of its effort to catch up with cities leading in accessible housing, executive director, Housing Secretariat, Abi Bond, recommended in a report last week that Toronto develop a new standard for “barrier-free” units, exceeding requirements in the Ontario Building Code “to ensure these units are not just visitable, but truly livable for people with disabilities.”
The report also called for the city to implement design standards based on Universal Design principles for affordable rental homes in city-led and city-supported rental housing developments.
At some point in their lives, most people will need barrier-free environments, Anderson said.
“Whether it’s aging or we become a parent, or we have a permanent or temporary disability due to an injury or illness, it’s an experience that we’re all going to have.”