Anyone looking to rent an apartment in Ottawa or elsewhere in Ontario knows just how expensive the rental market has become. For a particular group of women, though, it's a crisis.

One in three single senior women lives below the poverty line.

That reality is prompting a grassroots group of gals to try to shake things up.

It started off as a small Facebook post; just one woman looking to see if other women were interested in sharing living expenses.

It's quickly exploded into an organization called "Senior Ladies Living Together" and they are trying to address this crisis head-on.

When you're living close to the poverty line, every penny counts.  That's Pat Dunn's reality; a widow on a single income living in a trailer near Lindsay, Ontario.

“I was lonely and also poor and getting poorer,” says Dunn, “and I thought there's got to be other ladies like me so I’ll ask.”

Dunn posted something on Facebook in February looking for women in the Peterborough and Lindsay area to share rental accommodations. 

“I put up an ad and invited women in the area to talk with me in a group called “Senior Ladies Living Together” and see if we could make it happen.”

What happened changed Dunn’s life.

“They came at the rate of 50 people a week,” she says, “I thought I’d get 10 people in total.  I thought I was just doing it for me.  I found out it was huge.”

Dunn's group, "Senior Ladies Living Together" has now become a full time commitment, with more than 1500 members across Ontario. The reality is that one in three single senior women lives below the poverty line of $22,000 a year.  With Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement, the maximum a low-income single senior can receive is $1514 a month. A survivor’s benefit can perhaps add a couple hundred more.  Dunn says the chances of finding a rental property at 30% of your income (which is considered affordable housing) or about $500 a month is impossible.

“We don't have enough affordable housing even for the ladies in my group,” she says, “and there are thousands more just in Ontario.”

Pam MacDonald has joined the group, along with more than 100 women from the Ottawa area.  Macdonald currently lives with a young family in Smiths Falls but hopes one day to be able to afford to live in Ottawa again.

“I get about $1650 a month which means I could pay $495 in rent to keep it affordable at 30%,” MacDonald says, “Where would I live, in the mayor's office maybe?”

Their group has been likened to that 1980's sitcom the Golden Girls though Macdonald bristles at the comparison. 

“This isn't a comedy show we're living,” she says, “It would be nice to think we'd have a nice fancy house in South Beach Miami, but for poorest of poor, and those really struggling, we'd be lucky to put four bunk beds in a two-bedroom apartment and put six of us in there.”

MacDonald and Dunn have teamed up to grow this grassroots idea into a nation-wide movement.  They hope politicians will climb on board.

“We've been raised to think we should keep our dignity when we get old,” says MacDonald, an outspoken woman with a penchant for political activism, “I think we should let our dignity go and let our hair go down and be bold and be seen because we're invisible with our dignity.  When you’re old, you become invisible.”

Pat Dunn admits she's a little overwhelmed by all this.  Her simple quest to find housing for herself has now turned into a complex pursuit for hundreds of other senior women like her.

“We just have a lot a lot of work to do,” she says, with a big sigh, “to make this not just a dream; to make it real.”

This has become "real" for Pat.  She's found a little home in Peterborough next month to share with three other women and says there are other success stories in the works.  But she realizes her work is just beginning.