Canada’s homeless population is aging, changing how shelters are run

Canada’s homeless population is aging, changing how shelters are run

Roger Oake, 71, outside of the Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver on Wednesday. In major cities across Canada, shelter and service providers are seeing more elderly people turning to them.

Seventy-one-year-old Roger Oake sat on a bench outside the Union Gospel Mission shelter in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside after breakfast.

He had been sleeping at the shelter for about a month “this time” and said that after several years of homelessness, walking “the beat” during the day when the shelter isn’t open has become harder as he gets older.

“I really don’t know where to even begin. There’s so many things that could or should change, but I really don’t know,” he said on Wednesday.

“We’re people too, you know? We’re not just