There were a lot of programs that were specifically designed for seniors, but we’ve rolled all those into the programs that we offer now. If you look at the Preventive Maintenance Program that the Member was referring to, a good portion of those clients are seniors and our program officers working with the government service officers in the communities, we try to get to as many seniors as possible. If they applied the year before and we know that they are still an eligible client, then we’ll see what we can do to try to assist them in getting preventative maintenance done.
As well, I could point out that we’re looking at the role and responsibilities of our local housing organizations. Our plan is to use them as more of taking applications and working with the potential clients in the community, because in the past, clients in the communities had to wait until a program officer from the district office came in and
they did the application process. They left and then they had to do all the other work. We’re thinking about using our local housing organizations to do a lot of this work and then people in the community would know they had that one central point of contact. If they have to bring financial information, they know it’s just going to the one person.
With a lot of our programming now, I believe instead of having set times to get an application in, we almost have a continuous application process, so they can almost put an application in at any time which is a great convenience to clients in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.