As the dissatisfied rumbles about Whitehorse's housing shortage grow into a steady roar, some Whitehorse seniors are wondering if they will ever find themselves at the top of the housing wait list.

The tent city that sprang up on the lawn of the legislature earlier this month was started by two women in their 60s, both of whom fall into the "hard to house” category because of addiction and mental health issues.

Even with those extenuating circumstances, however, neither can get into social housing.

For seniors who are relatively healthy and self-sufficient, it is much harder.

"The broad picture with any housing society is that their mandate says ‘families first',” according to Jane Smith (not her real name), a longtime Whitehorse resident who worked for the Grey Mountain Housing Society for a number of years.

"The people who are single are very, very low priority. Single men are the last on the list, and single women are right behind them.

"If you have health issues, they say it moves you up the list, but I don't know.”

She asked that her real name not be used because of her current job, which prevents her from speaking publicly about political issues.

Smith is in her early 60s, a "baby senior” as she puts it, and is having to come up with some creative ways to ensure she has a place to live once she is retired.

"Four years from now, I won't be able to live in my own home because my pension is not enough to pay my mortgage and expenses,” she said of her modest trailer.

"You factor in the pad rent these nasty landlords charge, which now is $800 (a month) and in a few years will be close to a thousand, and I'm way over my monthly budget.”

Before she bought her home, Smith's plan was to purchase a large house and share it with women of similar age and interests.

"Like The Golden Girls,” she said, referring to the former television sitcom. "It would all be cost-sharing and communal living, rather than sit around and wait for seniors' housing.

"I think that's what we're going to have to do. If we wait for someone to do it for us, we're going to wait until hell freezes over.”

But shared accommodations don't necessarily provide a guarantee.

Victor Olynyk spent the past year living with a good friend who had his own home, but could no longer care for it, or himself, alone.

Olynyk cared for his friend and the friend's house through his last year of life, but when his friend died and the house was sold, Olynyk was once again without a home.

He spent $2,000 in two months on accommodation, more than two-thirds of his income, and much more than he could reasonably afford.

Now the 83-year-old man is living with his step-grandson, and paying more than half of his $1,450-a-month pension toward rent for a place that is far from any amenities.

He is on the Yukon Housing Corp. waiting list, and is frustrated with the lack of information he is given about where he stands, or how long he should expect to wait.

"The big problem is the lack of transparency,” he said in a recent interview with the Star. "I want to know what hope there is for me getting a place; they say that's confidential.”

"Telling people their position on the wait list doesn't tell them what they really want to know, which is when they will be housed,” according to Shona Mostyn, the corporation's acting director of housing operations.

"... That's an answer we simply don't have. We understand it's very frustrating, but we don't want to create false expectations.”

More than a third of the 180 people on the housing corporation's waiting list are senior citizens. Slightly over half of those on the list are categorized as homeless, which includes everyone from those living on the street, to people living in hotel rooms or couch surfing.

Simply being old and in expensive accommodations doesn't get a person much leverage on the list – victims of domestic violence are at the top, then people who need to move to the city because of health reasons, followed by homeless people.

Seniors' housing has been given some priority, however, in the form of a new seniors' residence which is scheduled to open this summer on the waterfront. Once those 30 units are filled, there will still be 30 elderly Yukoners waiting for housing, according to Mostyn.

Olynyk is trying to use his health issues to leverage himself up the list, a tactic he said he finds both frustrating and distasteful, but necessary.

"Being 83 is a health problem,” he said bluntly. "Being a senior means you are debilitated. I'm waiting on a heart operation ... my legs are numb most of the time; I have a herniated back.”

He takes issue with the fact that victims of violence and people from out of town with health problems automatically trump him regardless of how long he has been on the list.

"If a woman's getting beaten up, then they should put the guy in jail. It's not a housing issue, it's a crime issue. I know no one wants to say it, but women have more rights here than a single man like me.

"... I'm a veteran, and they say that doesn't matter. If you said that 25 years ago, people would have raised hell; now no one cares.”

"Women of my age group, from 50 to 65, are statistically the poorest of the poor in this country,” Smith said. "Many women are finding themselves at 60 with zero prospects, with a very small pension. The structure of social housing is such that we are not a priority.”

She said she is considering putting herself on the housing wait list now, in the hopes she will have a place by retirement.

Still, Smith counts herself lucky that she doesn't have to live in a tent or in the Salvation Army shelter.

Emergency housing should be the most urgent priority for the government, she said. The empty Super Valu (formerly Food Fair) building on Second Avenue and the old Canadian Tire store on Ogilvie Street are both examples of properties which should be expropriated and turned into shelters, she said.

"Why should they be sitting empty when people are living in tents?” she asked. "Yes, I believe in private industry, but these are major corporations, and members of our community are in need. That has to take priority at some point.”

Olynyk wants to see the government encourage more housing development in the private sector, while also building its own housing stock.

"Make it friendly,” he said of the kind of developments he'd like to see.

"Make it so a person with a skateboard can be happy there, or the president could be happy living there.

Don't segregate people because they are old or don't make a lot of money.”

"Get creative. Look at different options, new ways of doing things,” Smith urged. "They do so much around emergency preparedness, but we're in an emergency and we aren't prepared.”