Each year since 2017, Brightside has conducted a Community Enhancement Survey, intended to capture residents’ needs for supports from their own perspective, obtain detailed information about challenges faced by residents in order to propose solutions to improve their housing security, gather information that would guide the development of an action plan, and assess interest in community development activities and events.
The 2019 survey incorporated questions intended to assess Brightside residents’ perception of housing security; for the first time, the survey included an additional section that allowed for the collection of information on the demographics of Brightside’s resident base.
Brightside would like to thank all the Brightside residents that participated in this anonymous community enhancement survey – over 29% of the Brightside resident community completed the survey. This contribution helps us understand how to better serve the Brightside community, and how we can make a greater impact in improving housing security for the Brightside community.
Notable demographics of the Brightside community:
- Over 80% of respondents are over 55 years of age, with 62.5% over 65 years of age
- 76% of respondents are not working (retired or not employed)
- 82% of respondents live alone and almost 19% indicated that they have no social supports
- 7% of respondents identified as LGBTQ
Some key findings of the 2019 survey:
- Top barriers to housing security include issues surrounding food security, fear of movement and change (renoviction/demolition), unresolved conflict, and communication issues (with Brightside)
- 78.6% of respondents found Brightside to be approachable, and respondents that positively rated the communication level were 1.8 times more likely to experience housing satisfaction
- Respondents indicated physical limitations and conflict with neighbours as the top reasons for unmet health and wellness needs
- Over 6.7% of respondents noted that they experience some form of food insecurity; by comparison, the national average among older adults in Canada is 2.4%.
- Challenges relating to in-suite maintenance and cleaning remain the top rated supports required for living independently
Brightside will be using the information obtained from the Community Enhancement Survey to design programming that is both inclusive and supportive of our residents’ needs.
Below you will find a summary of the key findings of the 2019 survey. Click on any slide to enlarge; alternately, you can download a PDF version of the findings here.
