Plans for long-term care beds delayed in West Vancouver

At just shy of 91, former West Vancouver MLA Ralph Sultan lives a pretty active life – he still lives in his 1950s-era house looking out over Howe Sound, which he shares with his daughter, and “I’m up and down the stairs all the time,” he says.

He’s writing a family memoir, gets together regularly with a group of “old fart” economists to debate current events, and goes to fitness classes at the community centre several times a week.

As a former minister of state for seniors, though, Sultan knows not everyone is as spry as he is into their senior years.

While few people look forward to the prospect of a care home, when family members can no longer keep up, “people in their final stages of life frequently need long-term care,” he said.

He’s had several family friends who’ve found themselves in that position.

In one case, a younger man developed premature dementia and became too much for his wife to manage. In another, a woman in her 70s who lived alone in West Vancouver began to decline after a series of falls.

Neither family could afford the more than $130,000 annual cost of private care, so in both cases, they ended up on waiting lists for publicly funded care beds. Luckily, both eventually found beds in care homes on the North Shore.

But he worries many others won’t be so lucky. “Everybody’s getting older and they’re living longer,” he said. “The numbers are going to swamp us.”

Long-term care needs growing

In West Vancouver, demographically one of the “oldest” communities in the province, the hunt for publicly funded care beds isn’t getting easier, despite some hopeful signs.

During the pandemic, two long-term care facilities that had operated for decades closed in West Vancouver – first, the 75-bed West Vancouver Care Centre, then 205-bed Capilano Care Centre closed their doors.

Despite the opening of Creekstone Care Centre in neighbouring North Vancouver around the same time, no new care facilities have been opened or announced since, leaving the North Shore’s growing population of oldest residents with 130 fewer long term care beds than it had before.

There are currently just 1,069 publicly-funded long-term care beds on the North Shore – those that serve the most medically frail and complex seniors – compared to 1,199 five years ago.

Meanwhile, wait times for beds have been growing.

“We hear from seniors on a regular basis, and families, who are struggling to find care homes in their own community,” said Dan Levitt, the BC Seniors Advocate. “We know there’s a demand and supply issue.”

Wait times increasing

Since 2019, the wait time for a publicly funded long-term care bed has gone up by 54 per cent, said Levitt. In Vancouver Coastal Health, the area that includes that North Shore, the average wait time is now 233 days, said Levitt.

As the baby boomers age into their 80s, the problem is likely to become more acute.

In West Vancouver, the proportion of people over 65 – at about 28 per cent – is far higher than in most other Lower Mainland communities. And the number of people over 85 – the average age at which people enter care homes – is growing.

“We’re not keeping up with the number of beds we need for an aging demographic,” said Levitt.

But so far, not much has happened to replace the beds that have been lost, let alone add more.

VCH buys Capilano Care property

In August last year, Vancouver Coast Health quietly bought the Capilano Care Centre property on West Vancouver’s Clyde Avenue for $34.5 million from Revera. (The property had been assessed in july 2023 at $28.5 million.)

Revera had deemed the aging 205-bed facility – first built in 1973 and the site of a number of COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths during the pandemic – as too old, outdated and expensive to bring up to current standards, opting to close its doors instead in April 2022.

It’s been sitting empty for the past two years. The site is still zoned for care home or hospital use. So far, however, there has been no announcement from Vancouver Coastal Health about possible future uses. Seniors care hasn’t been ruled out in the future.

“Given the overall shortage of long-term care beds throughout the health authority, and the relative scarcity of viable land/opportunities, this purchase provides VCH with an opportunity to obtain land suitable for redevelopment in a timely and cost-effective manner,” the health authority said in a statement.

“VCH will be providing additional information regarding the redevelopment of this property as it progresses.”

So far, however, there’s apparently not much to say.

For now, that leaves Inglewood Care Centre, run by Baptist Housing, as the only publicly funded long-term care facility in West Vancouver.

Inglewood expansion plans delayed

In 2020, Baptist Housing bought the 57-year-old 230-bed care centre, and three adjacent lots, with financing of approximately $114 million provided by BC Housing, plus an additional $14.5 million of its own equity.

The $500 million redevelopment plan, first presented with public fanfare three years ago, was that Baptist Housing would rebuild those long-term care beds as well as adding privately paid beds, plus privately paid assisted and independent living units and other affordable housing options for seniors and staff, over a five-year period.

Plans included replacement of the 230 public beds plus the addition of 10 privately paid long-term care beds. Plans for subsequent phases of the development included three more buildings on the site that were to include a range of other seniors housing, including rental suites, privately paid long-term care and assisted living suites plus an affordable housing component with room for seniors as well as staff who work at the care centre, with the backing of the federal Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and the province.

Since then, however, news on the project has gone dormant, with little information about why.

West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager says he would like to see the Inglewood project come back sooner than later.

“We are completely frustrated. Because we have a council that would like to see something happen there,” he said. “We have lost so many long-term care beds in West Vancouver and we need them back.”

According to a statement from the district, “the proposal is on hold at the request of the applicant and we do not have an anticipated date of when the proposal may continue.”

Baptist Housing indicated in an emailed statement there have been multiple factors at play in the delay.

“The project has experienced delays because of complex rezoning requirements from the District of West Vancouver which has resulted in the process taking much longer than expected,” said chief operating officer Terri Griffing in an emailed statement. “The delay has also impacted the project budget, due to the rise in inflation and increasing costs associated with construction that occurred during the delay.”

Griffing said Baptist Housing remains committed to the project, but added, “a project of this size and scope is both complicated and challenging, and only possible with partners and municipal support. We continue to work with BC Housing, Vancouver Coastal Health, and CMHC, and we are looking forward to going to council and the community with a strong, shovel-ready proposal that provides local seniors and their families with a residence everyone can support and be proud of.”

“The reality is there is still work to do in order to satisfy the recommendations and requirements of our partners and the municipality,” Griffing added.

Sager let it be known during his election campaign that he wasn’t a fan of the height of the project as originally envisioned.

“We desperately do need care facilities,” he said at one all-candidates meeting in 2022. “Do we need eight-and 10-storey buildings in that neighbourhood? I really hope not. I don’t think it’s fair to that neighbourhood.”

Sager said he’s hopeful, however, that a revised plan for Inglewood will soon be in the offing.

Sager said he believes the real source of the hold up has been financial.

In an emailed statement, BC Housing said it remains committed to the project and “is working with Baptist Housing Society to explore appropriate funding models for the next stage of this project.”

Inglewood wouldn’t be the only project to hit the brakes over money troubles.

Construction costs have skyrocketed in the past three years, putting a number of construction projects throughout Metro Vancouver on hold.

Sultan said he visited Inglewood many times over the past six months as a good friend spent the last part of his life there. He added he thought the redevelopment plan was a good one and it should go ahead – though he hopes he won’t have need of it himself anytime soon.

“So far so good,” he said. “Check back in five years.”

Editor's note: The original version of this story incorrectly stated that the Capilano Care Centre property was sold for $28.5 million. While the property was assessed by BC Assessment at $28.5 million, it sold for $34.5 million.