The United Way of the Lower Mainland has fallen on hard times, and donations are down. So far down, that the non-profit is ending $1.6 million in funding for seniors, which will impact countless groups in the region.
You can't really blame the United Way. They rely on charity, and when people don't donate enough, they have less money to hand over to local groups. One of those groups is Seniors Services Society, which is now losing its sole source of funding for a program that finds permanent housing for vulnerable seniors.
While we are hoping the provincial government or B.C. Housing will step in to fund this program, we question why local groups are in a position like this in the first place.
We've been hearing from the non-profit sector that there has been an alarming trend over the past several years. The government is off-loading more work onto non-profits, and charities are doing the best they can with limited resources and increasing expectations.
The result? Non-profits are delivering government services, which should be done by professionals, and people who care are replacing people with know-how, we're told.
These groups, if they are lucky, rely on a patchwork of funding, while those with a single source are in a precarious position when that money dries up. This creates perpetual uncertainty, which makes long-term planning extremely difficult. There are benefits to having local non-profits deliver services. They are in touch with what's needed on the ground and are firmly rooted in the communities they serve, but when they start taking on serious social work, that's not something that should rely on the whim of charity. Housing vulnerable seniors is something that should be a government priority and dare we say, a human right?
We look forward to running a follow-up story, one where vulnerable seniors get the help they need to find permanent housing. Leaving them out in the cold is simply unacceptable.
