Letter: Government policy needs to make downsizing palatable

Why should mom and dad, now in their elder years, be expected to hobble to the rescue of junior yet again because government housing policy muffed it?

Weren’t grandparent baby sitting services along with a cheque to help with junior’s down payment enough?

As the article on seniors’ reluctance to downsize notes, government policy needs to make downsizing palatable. That would include a more equitable distribution of the very generous grants available to seniors if they simply stay put and retrofit their current abode with energy-efficient upgrades.

Whereas if they were to downsize to a condo dwelling to make way for junior, such grants are far more stingily distributed (if at all). And the costs of structural maintenance are mandatory and considerable, as they are backed by an automatic liens behind all condo-to-owner billings such as maintenance fees. Those fees include contributions to the reserve fund.

As the Condominium Authority of Ontario has only recent realized, such structural maintenance fees rise far in excess of the rate of inflation. And the automatic liens behind such bills — while there for practical reasons — is also the due process to remove property title from the owner should they be unable to pay.

So junior is asking a heck of a lot from mom and/or dad to downsize so junior’s generation can move up. Especially as it wasn’t mom or dad or junior who created this problem, but decades of political inertia.

While mom and dad are flattered that junior still relies on them to sort out all of life challenges, isn’t this expectation that the elders simply shuffle aside also incredibly ageist on the part of government policy drafters?