A ‘hopeless’ feeling: Struggling seniors face sky-high rents and few, if any, options [Video]

Ron Sept is getting desperate.

He can’t afford a car, his prescription medications, eyeglasses or new clothes, he said. He’s stopped eating meat to save on groceries, which he can only buy with the money his son living overseas sometimes sends him. If you visit him in his one-bedroom apartment in Nanaimo, B.C., you’d have to sit on the floor, because he has one chair and no table.

Sept, 70, said he’s depressed, especially since giving up the antidepressant he can’t afford without insurance coverage. He’s also anxious, lonely and said his health is suffering.

Why? Because 95 per cent of his pension goes to his $1,650 rent, leaving him with about $100 in his bank account each month for all other expenses. The amount, he said, is “ridiculously inadequate.”

“Having to go crawling to family members on my hands and knees … it puts people in such a difficult situation. And I think people …