As FIFA World Cup gets closer, advocates plead for help to secure Vancouver accommodations for out-of-town patients

An advocacy group is concerned there’s no plan to accommodate patients from out of town who need to stay in Vancouver for medical treatment.

Accommodations are expected to be very expensive and hard to come by during the month-long period when Vancouver hosts seven FIFA World Cup matches in June and July.

But it won’t just be tourists and FIFA workers who need a place to stay. Out-of-town patients who are getting treatment at Vancouver General and St Paul’s hospitals will also need accommodation.

The advocacy group Housing is Healthcare has been sounding the alarm about the lack of a government plan for months.

“I think what’s going to happen is that there will be patients navigating an optionless system. So there’s going to be nowhere to stay, and there’s going to be nobody within government accountable for this,” said the group’s founder Jacqueline Podewils.

‘Where am I going to stay?’

One out-of-town patient who’s concerned about the availability and cost of accommodations is Vernon mother of three Leah Becker. The 53-year-old has terminal interstitial lung disease, and is currently undergoing testing in order to be added to the waitlist for a potentially life-extending double lung transplant at Vancouver General Hospital.

“I have to be prepared to have at least three months at the bare minimum somewhere to stay, to live when that happens, when I get the call,” said Becker.

And she wonders what that will mean for her if that calls comes when Vancouver is hosting the World Cup.

“Where am I going to stay? How much am I going to have to pay? What is that going to look like?” she said in an interview from her home in the Okanagan. “I have heard that the vacancy rate is zero, and that the cost for anything is astronomical.”

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In an email, the health ministry said: “While there isn’t a specific program in place to provide extra support during the seven spread out game days, there are a number of existing programs available to patients and their families.”

But Podewils said that put too much of a burden on patients.

“The province has suggested that patients plan ahead or work with their doctors to find a plan for themselves. And that it’s not something that the patient should be responsible for,” she said.

“The FIFA World Cup is not the responsibility of a patient. It is the responsibility of the health care system and the provincial government.”

“I’ve never looked to the government to help me for anything, but I guess I would look to them for a safety net. There isn’t one there,” added Becker. “I have a lot of stuff on my mind right now, and that’s just one other thing that I have to add in there, and it’s stressful.”

Fearing out-of-town patients will be left with no options during FIFA, Housing is Healthcare has secured 15 rooms in downtown Vancouver for June and July.

“For those two months this summer, it would cost approximately $200,000. And I’ve been working with partnerships and reaching out to the government, trying to find somebody to back this so that patients would have a little bit of help,” said Podewils.

If she can’t secure government funding or a private sponsor in the next week, she said she will have to let those rooms go.

“And then we will be back to square one where there’s nothing left,” Podewils said.

‘Help us, please’

Becker has taken out a line of credit in case her name comes up for a double lung transplant during the World Cup period. She would also need to find accommodation for her parents who would be her post-surgery caregivers. Her message to the health minister?

“Not just behalf of myself, but on behalf of the other people that will be waiting and could possibly get the call at that time: Help us, please. We need help. And this is something that is much easier done at that level,” Becker said.

In the meantime, knowing the rooms Podewils secured would be available for her if she needed them would help assuage her anxiety.

“Thinking about what that would take a lot off of my mind, it’s everything.”