The Old Levy Blues

So you are on a fixed income and you consider buying into the new expensive towers that are rising like stalagmites all over. Of course, in these small unit establishments, you find the latest in marble counters and gas stoves, jazzy sink taps and downstairs, gyms no one uses much, a pool to entertain the grandkids and in some, even, a bowling alley. But these cost far too much for an average retiree who hasn't just sold his big house. The ones who have are lucky. The fixed incomers over seventy and worry about rising costs, sold out long ago and live in the old condos. They don't get much media attention because the media worries more about the thirty year olds still living at home. "Oh my, they can't buy a house with a yard."  Lost in the dust of it all, are the countless, quiet, very old seniors on fixed incomes who can barely afford the monthly fees to live in their aging buildings. But they keep quiet because they aren't used to complaining. They, as always, "make do".  Now their pensions are in danger. Due to future repair costs in their self owned old condo buildings, the three or four storey wood frame kind, that have large and interesting floor plans are falling apart. Along with the monthly  maintenance fees and taxes that go up every year, roofs and elevators need replacing. A band of inspectors, consultants, planners, and experts of every kind tell them that this or that or the other thing must be redone.  The roof and the pipes have to go. The costs to redo them at present labour and material expense, are enormous. One couple over seventy, is up for a levy bill of forty thousand dollars. They don't have it. They cannot find a place they can pay for and no one wants to buy their condo anyway because of the upcoming levies. Are these and hundreds of other elderly people, going to be out on the street in tents? Their savings are gone and soon they will be, too. To get into a "home" is out of the question because that would break most of them at six thousand dollars a month. That's no solution. What to do? What to do? What to do?