My
background is two different science majors and an advanced diploma in
biotechnology, so I am stubborn as hell. There is pretty much only one thing
that can ever sway me away from my position, facts. To my delight, I had the opportunity
to listen to Betty-Lou Souter speak about her organization, community care. Why
is this to my delight? Simply because she had facts, and they were informative
and eye opening. Here main focus is on poverty, but in a unique way. She focuses on poverty in her area.
This concept has always made
sense to me, fix at home before you fix your neighbours. We currently have a disparity
within our backyard, there are currently 10 641 individuals on the affordable
housing waiting list (Niagara Region 2011). Of those, 2022 are families with
children, and it is increasing, so that number greater than 10 000 is getting
even larger. In 2011 there were 1800 households at risk of becoming homeless
and just over 800 individuals. This does not include those that are currently homeless;
they are a much harder problem to collect data on. Last shocking fact, in 2011
400 000 people were accessing food banks, mind you this may include repeat visits
for regular patrons, but regardless this is a huge number. So it looks like we
need to fix here, shouldn’t we?
Mrs. Souter is addressing this
problem head on. As she mentioned in her talk, when she goes to politicians she
goes ready to tell them these facts. Also her organization is directly dealing
with as much of this as possible, above I mentioned there were 10 641 people on
the affordable housing list in Niagara in 2011. Well in 2013 community care
took 13 732 calls asking for help in getting housing. They are trying to help
as many people as possible; they offer financial support food support, legal
help everything and it is all provided by the community. There is no government
funding, they are not allotted any funds but what they can generate. Interestingly
Community Care does not just hand out the food; they offer information on
eating healthy. They seek to empower the person using their facilities, it is
not about cranking through cases and just providing a service. It is also about
teaching good habits and offering independence. Community Care is a great
example of helping by creating social capital.
To me it seemed that Mrs. Souter’s message was not
about poverty, it is about ending poverty. Specifically through community based
programs and co-operation. What struck a chord with me was the information that
they work collectively as food banks in our region and share resources. That is
brilliant as you may have a region with very charitable people and not so many
patrons, or vice versa. Also she is actively meeting with politicians to try
and get her points across and into legislature. I was really wowed by the low
income cut off information. A single person cut off is at $20 366 a year. That
is low, I currently make more than that and I find myself short every once and
a while. Also the amount of money that Ontario works provides for shelter is currently
$376. I have rarely seen a place where rent is that low and the living
conditions are not horrid. Add in a child and the amount goes up, but barely. A
single parent with one child gets $596 for shelter. Maybe they could rent a
room together for that but not an apartment, especially not a two bedroom. I
assume these amounts are supposed to be supplemented with your own income but
the cut off is very low for this social assistance. A family of four living at
a cut off of 37 843, that leaves only $21 500 that the parents could make, in a
year and combined. If they exceed that amount they lose the $16 344 in support.
This is what Mrs.Souter is saying essentially, that it is really hard to get
ahead in that system. As soon as you can take your own step forward, you are
knocked back to shaky ground.
