It’s a hell of thing to be retired from a meaningful career and realize you can’t afford your rent any longer.
. She estimates that so far 47 women – in Peterborough, Guelph, Ottawa, North York and Manitoulin Island – have found an affordable place to live through SWLT, with another five in the pipeline. There’s an old personal finance guideline that rental costs should account for no more than 30 per cent of your gross pay. Ms. Dunn said people in the SWLT community were spending about 40 per cent of their income on rent a few years ago and are now around 50 per cent or higher in some cases.
She started her search by setting up a Facebook group that ultimately turned into SWLT. “I thought I might get 10 people and there was a total of 50 by the end of the first week and 200 by the end of the first month,” she said. “I thought it was my problem I was trying to fix, but then I realized I couldn’t have all these people come along and not help them, too.”
Ms. Dunn spends about 10 to 12 hours a week on SWLT and considers it more of a mission than a hobby because of the affordability issues that she and her peers face. To start with, solo seniors areBecause they often outlive their husbands, women must also absorb the loss of spousal Old Age Security and, to a large extent, Canada Pension Plan retirement benefits as well. There’s a CPP survivor’s benefit, but it’s small .