ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½

He had no family or friends to turn to, and the city’s shelter system had no space for him.

“I don’t sleep,� he told Habibinia. “I’m stressed. I’m depressed. Where am I to go?�

No 91-year-old should have to ask that question. And it’s not as if Ventullo had been living in luxury: a friend described the ground-level unit in Little Italy that he’d rented for 20 years as “really run down,� with no refrigerator and “plaster falling from the ceiling.�

Ventullo also says he endured an infestation of bedbugs prior to receiving his eviction notice, issued in July 2023 by his landlord’s son, George Demelo, who according to court documents said he intended to move from Edmonton to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and into the unit to support his ailing father. (Demelo did not respond to the Star’s repeated requests for comment.)

A legal battle ensued, and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice upheld the eviction. Yet some observers believe Ventullo is the victim of a “renoviction.� Indeed, tenants across Ontario have accused landlords of issuing bogus eviction notices under the pretext of moving in themselves or making essential renovations.

City council passed a long-overdue bylaw last year to protect tenants against evictions disguised as essential renovations, but the legislation doesn’t take effect until July 31 — yet it can’t come soon enough.

Housing is scarce across almost all sectors, and that includes retirement homes. The options available to Ventullo were either too expensive or would’ve taken him away from the community he’s familiar with.

His eviction put the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Police Service in a horrible situation. A staff sergeant from 14 Division said on Friday, “I’m not dragging the man out of here without a place to go.â€� Two days later, the city’s manager of media relations, Russell Baker, said that staff had arranged a shelter space for Ventullo for Monday. There, Baker said, he would be linked to “the most appropriate supports in the shelter or health-care system.â€�

None of this should sit well with any of us.

One of society’s great delusions is that we treat our elders with the respect and care they deserve. Those who recall that the initial crisis centres of the COVID-19 pandemic were retirement homes can attest to how pervasive and how pernicious this delusion is.

Of course, aging brings with it physical decline and the shrinking of worlds. That is the way of things. But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t provide all that’s necessary to preserve the dignity and comfort of our elders.

Ontario has long been faced with a so-called grey tsunami that would see its senior population spike and the number of citizens 85 and older reach unprecedented highs. A report from Queen’s University titled “Ageing Well,� published in 2020, found that too many seniors in Canada had been placed in inadequate settings. Healthy aging, the report indicates, would require major policy changes that emphasize housing and the social needs of elderly Canadians.

“The great majority of seniors want to age well and in place,� the report states, “in homes and communities they can call their own.� It warned of the “coming surge� of seniors, especially in older cohorts. But if the case of Isidoro Ventullo is any indication, the warning was not heeded. The challenge has not been met.

Ventullo’s options are ones that no one would want for their own parents or grandparents. They are ones that no senior in a city, in a province, in a country as wealthy as ours should be faced with.

Yet if our governments, especially Queen’s Park, do not act — on housing, on elder care, on basic decency — then they are the only options many of us will have when it becomes our turn to grow old in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½.