In an RV outside a B.C. Walmart, a senior dreams of housing ( www.cbc.ca )

Keith Light, 77, says he spent New Year's Eve trying to get the engine of his recreational vehicle — outside a Walmart in East Vancouver — running to stay warm, while trying to imagine better times ahead.

"I just laid here and visualized B.C. Housing calling me and saying: 'We have a place for you,'" said the former construction worker.

Light has been on B.C. Housing's waiting list for subsidized housing for two years, and every time he contacts the agency, staff ask him to check back in another six months.

He is among a large population of elderly people living in poverty or are on its brink in B.C., where perennially high housing costs exacerbate countrywide cost-of-living woes.