"What a horrible end to a long working career, unable to live in your retirement home and barely enough income to pay your steadily increasing property taxes ..."

Sob stuff, Insane Jaber.  

I recognize change is tough, and perhaps tougher for those over 75 to contemplate than for younger people.  However, if a retired couple or single is sitting in an older home in Vancouver valued at over a million or so, it's time to sell and move out.  Not out of the city necessarily (although, beyond 75, most oldsters probably aren't really able to enjoy its benefits as they once did), nor, sometimes, even out of their neighbourhoods.  Buy a condo with the windfall bucks.  Rent a one- or two-bedroom in a seniors' home.  

See?  Not such a horrible end at all.