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Amid considerations from seniors that the Shelter Assist for Aged Renters (SAFER) program hasn’t saved up with rising rents, B.C. is boosting the month-to-month lease complement and permitting extra seniors to qualify.
Seniors who qualify for SAFER will get a one-time prime up of $430 plus a further $110 a month in rental subsidies, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon introduced Tuesday morning. The elevated month-to-month fee means the typical subsidy for current SAFER purchasers shall be $310 a month, Kahlon stated.
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“It will take us a step ahead to addressing the important problem of affordability that many seniors are dealing with,” he stated throughout a press convention on the legislature.
Seniors already enrolled within the rental help program should not have to use for the one-time prime up, as it’ll routinely be utilized to their April fee.
Kahlon additionally stated extra seniors will qualify for this system because the revenue threshold is being raised from $33,000 to $37,240. Which means a further 4,800 seniors will qualify for this system, he stated.
The B.C. Greens had referred to as on the federal government to extend the edge to $45,000 for a person and $50,000 for a pair.
Final month Postmedia spoke to a 76-year-old from Campbell River who stated lower-income seniors like her are being left behind as a result of the revenue threshold was too low.
Nora Plamondon-Henry was turned down for an house as a result of she doesn’t make sufficient however when she regarded into the SAFER program, she found she makes an excessive amount of to qualify.
A report launched final month by Workplace of the Seniors Advocate discovered subsidies for the one in 5 seniors who lease have fallen “dramatically brief” of what they should proceed residing in their very own properties.
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The report discovered that within the final 5 years, B.C.’s senior inhabitants has elevated however the proportion of seniors receiving the SAFER subsidy has dropped by 14 per cent.
For individuals who do qualify, the typical subsidy fell by eight per cent regardless of a 12 per cent enhance in month-to-month rents for SAFER purchasers, in response to the report.
Renters who profit from the Rental Help Program (RAP) will get the one-time prime up however not the month-to-month enhance.
Requested why renters who’re struggling to pay ever-raising costs received’t additionally get a further $110 a month, Kahlon stated they’re benefiting from the $400-a-year renters tax credit score.
“There’s different helps for them inside authorities and we’re not taking a look at rising that (RAP) program at this level however we may sooner or later,” he stated.
The one-time prime up is funded by the federal authorities’s $12.3-million enhance to the Canada Housing Profit and the month-to-month subsidy enhance will value the province $15.6 million.
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kderosa@postmedia.com
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