The City of St. John’s has released a ‘What We Heard’ document focusing on age-friendly communities, with issues around housing and transportation among the top concerns.
The document looks at a wide range of topics affecting seniors and their quality of life in the city.
Under housing, the city heard that more housing is needed—included seniors complexes, apartment buildings, and condos.
Residents say these need to be affordable, and have suggested introducing controls on rent and subsidizing rent for seniors.
As well, it was expressed that housing units should include accessibility and safety features that promote independent living.
The document also looks at transportation challenges.
Residents say Metrobus services needs to be more frequent, and the city needs to look at the location of bus stops to make them easier to access. As well, the say that the Go Bus Service has become unreliable.
More age-friendly parking options are needed, according to those who participated.
They are calling on the city to create seniors’ parking for those who do not have a disability but cannot walk long distances. As well, it notes that the parking app is difficult to use, and the parking pay stations can be too far away for seniors to walk.
