Gardens On Tenth in Altona is wrestling with the realities of tenants who are aging in place.

The average age of residents living in the new Gardens building, The Manor and The Units is about 85 and their individual care needs continue to increase, according to the managing director for the Gardens.

Laurie Schellenberg said that creates challenges for them because, while they want people to age in place for as long as possible, they don't have the resources to provide the services that many of their residents require to remain in their homes.

"We only have 24 hours staffing in The Apartments, the building that was formerly called Ebenezer. So, we're finding that the tenants in the other three buildings are all aging ... and their needs are increasing."

Some residents will use government funded Home Care services to address their care needs, but it doesn't cover all of their needs, according to Schellenberg.

That's why Gardens has partnered with Silver Lining Care, a private personal care services company based out of Steinbach in an effort to provide the necessary supports that would supplement Home Care.

Residents can hire Silver Lining Care on an hourly rate to provide the personal supports that they need.

Unfortunately, the user pay program hasn't attracted any of the Gardens residents to this point.

"There's been lots of interest, but no one has signed on the dotted line yet. I think they are hesitant to be the first one, and hesitant to spend the money," said Schellenberg.

In an effort to make the program more affordable and ultimately more attractive to residents, Gardens and Silver Lining Care are promoting a program that would create neighbourhood care teams.

"If we have between six and ten tenants that require extra supports and are willing to put some money towards it, we can then hire one person through Silver Lining Care to provide care for between six and ten individuals. So, instead of them getting one hour of support, they would get six to ten hours of support by spreading the cost."

Schellenberg said they may have to work a little harder in trying to sell the benefits of the program to residents.

At the Gardens On Tenth annual general meeting in October, board chair David Wiebe indicated that unless they see some uptake on programs like Silver Lining Care, the seniors housing organization may be forced to implement an exit criteria.

"Very simply, some tenants are no longer able to live independently. As the board determined this spring - doing nothing is not an option."

Ultimately, the organization wants to see a greater investment by the Manitoba government into its aging in place plan, and is calling for increased funding for its Supports for Seniors in Group Living program and for supportive housing.

Schellenberg said the province needs to catch up on these new realities and is confident they will eventually.

"We're trying to figure out how to get those supports in place for our tenants. So, in the meantime, instead of it coming out of government pockets, it's going to have to come from private resources."