At 64 years of age, Charlotte Roth is a retired early childhood educator who finds herself caught between the needs of the very young and the concerns of the aging.

She will put her name on a wait list for subsidized seniors housing at the Kitsilano Neighbourhood House even though construction of those 15 apartments will push out a daycare and come with the temporary expense of 25 childcare spaces.

"The problem is a lack of space at both ends of the spectrum--from the children to the seniors," said Roth, who now volunteers with youth at the University of B.C. Farm. "This is not just our problem. It's a city difficulty for our urban society."

Adults over the age of 55 living in Vancouver are eligible for B.C. Housing subsidies if their annual income is fixed at $35,000 or below. More than 800 Vancouver residents are on the B.C. Housing wait list, and within the city, seniors live in 6,800 social housing units. B.C. Housing lists one subsidized development in Kitsilano with a total 48 bachelor suites and 148 one-bedroom apartments dedicated to seniors. The Kits House apartments would be the second.

But its construction means the non-profit Kitsilano Daycare Society (KDS), which has leased space from Kits House for 38 years, is forced to relocate permanently. So far KDS has not been able to secure an affordable location in Kitsilano.

Violet Ledingham, a KDS educator who has cared for hundreds of children in 30 years, said there are only 13 licensed childcare spaces for every 100 children living on the West Side.

She described the situation as desperate and stressful, saying the relationship between the daycare and the neighbourhood house has deteriorated.

Since the $6 million renovation budget is partly funded by municipal and provincial governments, she is calling on Mayor Gregor Robertson and Premier Gordon Campbell, whose Point Grey riding includes Kits House, to address the lack of childcare in Vancouver.

Denise Hanson agrees. "We've appealed to the premier who has made assurances in the past that he will maintain our operation, but it's come down to the nth hour and you find out it's an empty promise," said Hanson, a public health nurse whose three-year-old daughter is now on six daycare wait lists and does not have a place secured for September.

Hanson wrote a lengthy post at Kitsilano.ca, making the case that childcare should be a fundamental right and expressing frustration that government does not fund universal daycare across the country.

Catherine Leach, the executive director of Kits House, said the Association of Neighbourhood Houses B.C. made the decision to upgrade, incorporate seniors housing and to run its own licensed daycare in addition to other kindergarten and after-school care--as is the norm across the province for neighbourhood houses. She said government approval for the redevelopment is assured.

Leach also said seniors like Roth have been caught in the middle and inadvertently left with the burden of guilt.

For her part, Roth said she is sympathetic but seeks the security of subsidized seniors housing.

"I can understand both points of view," said Roth, who considers Ledingham a colleague. "It would be a great relief to know I would be in a place like that. As I'm getting older, I would really like to stay living in a family setting."

mstewart@vancourier.com