Aging-in-Place in a Mid-sized Canadian City: A Case Study of the Housing Experiences of Seniors in Kelowna's Housing Market

Abstract

Kelowna, a mid-size city in the interior of the Okanagan Valley, is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada with one of the most expensive real estate markets. Despite Kelowna’s high proportion of seniors, little has been published about the housing experiences of its senior homeowners and renters. This study focuses on the main housing barriers seniors face, their coping strategies, and the benefits of aging-in-place. The data were obtained from a survey of 79 seniors (aged 65 or older) who are residents of Kelowna (45 homeowners and 34 renters), and semi-structured interviews with 12 key informants who are familiar with housing and seniors’ issues in Kelowna. The evidence indicates that most of the senior homeowners and renters are happy living in the city of Kelowna, find it a good place to retire and a safe place to live, with enough opportunities to meet other seniors and make friends. While most of them aspire to age-in-place, they face significant problems, mostly due to housing affordability and/or accessibility issues. To make aging-in-place more feasible, the seniors and key informants called for more senior government support in the form of affordable housing, as well as policy initiatives for future housing development in Kelowna to accommodate the housing and service needs of its growing senior population. Keywords: seniors; affordable housing; aging-in-place; mid-size city; Kelowna