Prices at the grocery store, rental spikes and other financial pressures all contributed to more stress for people in Nanaimo, especially seniors on a fixed income. (Dreamstime)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

cost pressures

Top Stories of 2023: Inflation and cost of living challenges hit local families hard

Dec 17, 2023 | 11:14 AM

NANAIMO — Few stories pulsed with such regularity through 2023 than the cost of living.

From rising rents to increasingly high prices at area grocery stores, living in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island and just about anywhere in the world became significantly more expensive over the last 12 months.

Boosted by being one of the fastest growing areas in the country, Nanaimo felt the pinch from multiple sides with rising demand for housing continuing to skyrocket rental prices, in addition to grocery and service cost increases.

A report published in November from Living Wage B.C. found Nanaimo’s living wage, the amount two people would each need to make to afford life’s necessities for themselves and two young children, rose 11.6 per cent from last year.

The group found two adults would need to earn $22.87 per hour each to afford food, housing, childcare and transportation in Nanaimo.

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It was just $16.33 per hour per person in 2021.

“The cost of housing is increasing everywhere in particular for those people who have to move,” Anastasia French, provincial manager for Living Wage for Families B.C., said. “People who are renting are protected relatively by rent control measures, but as soon as someone has to move…their rent costs are shooting up.”

Cost pressures continued to force tough decisions for many, choosing between food or transportation, or potentially taking on more hours at work at the expense of time with families.

Nanaimo was hardly an outlier.

Every community in B.C. saw an increase, with the most expensive areas being Metro Vancouver, Victoria and the Sunshine Coast which were all above $25 per hour per person.

Those cost pressures also had ripple effects downstream as local groups like Nanaimo Loaves and Fishes Community Food bank seeing a significant spike in demand for their services.

After one of their bigger holiday campaigns in 2022, this past year offered little respite for the group.

In addition to their well-subscribed programs through the year, Loaves and Fishes were expecting an “extraordinary” demand for holiday hampers heading into Christmas 2023.

“We’re expecting it to be up by 30 per cent over last year,’ Peter Sinclair, executive director of the food bank, told NanaimoNewsNOW last month.

And the people subscribing to these services shifted as well.

Many were people who’d previously donated to the food bank or had fallen on hard times elsewhere in their lives and were reaching out for help.

Nanaimo’s struggles with housing inventory not only affected families or those new to the area, but also seniors trying to enjoy their retirement.

Rising rents or mortgage pressures combined with a senior’s fixed income meant more were being forced out of housing they’d occupied for years.

More were forced into hazardous situations, according to the executive director of the Nanaimo Family Life Association, Deborah Hollins.

“We recently worked with a man who was 72 years old, who was getting his cancer treatments at NRGH and sleeping in his car at night,” said Hollins. “There’s an increasing number of seniors who are finding themselves on the verge of homelessness for the first time in their 60’s and 70’s.”

Seeing more seniors in unenviable situations was also becoming more evident at local shelters.

The Nanaimo Unitarian Shelter said they were seeing more people 60 and older in addition to a wide-ranging clientele from those with mental health and addictions challenges, to those with disabilities or working poor.

Programming through shelters helps, according to Paul Manly, executive director of the Unitarian operation, but they’re only able to help a limited number of people.

“The idea is to create stability for people, get them through the process. We do vulnerability assessments which is part of the process with BC Housing to get them into supportive housing, then just…help them to get the resources they need to get them into homes for themselves.”

Despite financial pressures, some groups have reported generosity still overcomes.

The Parksville Toy Drive broke records for donations for the second straight year, while Parksville Beach Festival handed out a record amount to local groups, money which came from gate receipts to the annual sand sculpting competition.

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