POVERTY


​What is Poverty?
​Poverty is the world at its worst when people are deprived of basic everyday things that we take for granted like food, water, shelter, money and clothes.

The truth about poverty
There are many misconceptions about poverty -- primary among these are that:
  • Real poverty is rare.
  • We don't have it here.
  • People on social assistance do just fine.
  • They’re deadbeats who don't want to work.

The facts prove otherwise.  Here are just a few:
  • One in seven, or 4.9 million Canadians live in poverty.[i]  1.5 million Ontarians are poor, 15% of the population.  And these people are not just poor, but very poor, living on incomes 33% below the poverty line.[ii]  
  • ​Downtown Oshawa, where most of our clients live and the poorest neighborhood in the Durham Region, has a median after tax household income of $32,500: only marginally higher than Toronto's infamous Regent Park at $29,500.[iii]  
  • Major factors resulting in poverty are job loss or reduction in hours, physical or mental disability, and recent immigration.  Other factors are being Aboriginal or a single mom.  19.8% of Oshawa’s children live in poverty and well over 60% of these live in single parent households.[iv]  
  • Poverty has many sources.  As one report puts it, “Poverty has a complex mix of institutional and individual causes. Poverty has no single cause. It results from a mix of institutional impediments including our system of social assistance, skills and credential recognition, and cultural barriers as well as individual gaps such as lower skills, education or literacy.”[v]
  • Reluctance to work is rarely the reason to go onto social assistance, especially given what it means for quality of life.  The majority of the Back Door Mission’s clients have physical or mental disabilities that have stopped them from working, or they’re too elderly.  
  • A few of our people have found part-time work (they'll work if they can) but in marginal jobs with pitiful wages.   They form part of what's called the "working poor."
  • That's part of a larger problem.  Many in Canada have earnings too low to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.  Others hover on the edge, only a wage loss or illness away from economic disaster.  Many of the jobs available are part-time, casual, or seasonal, ineligible for Employment Insurance.[vi]  
  • ​​Though social assistance rates are higher than some elsewhere, Ontario otherwise has the lowest funding for social programs among provinces, the lowest investment in affordable housing, and the highest out-of-pocket health-care costs.[vii]
  • 2012 Statistics Canada figures showed that the wealthiest 20% of the Ontario population held 56.4% of the total wealth, while the poorest 20% owned 5.9%.[viii]
Poverty is a complicated issue whose impact is felt across many areas of society. Poverty is the result of economic, societal and institutional factors.   A shrinking middle class, companies downsizing, declining wages, static government funding, and lack of affordable housing has left many people a statistic of poverty while others are on the verge of becoming one.  For others, life circumstances have been the cause, a long chain of bad luck, misdirecting life experiences, and marginalized existence leading people to where they are now.

With so many Canadians living in poverty, the cost to us as a society is staggering. It affects living conditions, physical health, mental health and overall well being.  One authority has asserted that the annual public cost of poverty in Ontario is $32 billion to $38 billion, or 5% of Provincial GDP.  Such costs include not only remedial costs, but lost productivity and lost opportunity costs.  One of the best analyses available has asserted that the real cost of poverty to each Ontario household works out to $2,299 to $2,895 to annually.[ix] ​
  • Almost one in five Canadian households spend over 50% of their income on rent, placing many at risk of homelessness.  Well over 200,000 people in Canada experience homelessness each year; as many as 1.3 million Canadians have been entirely unsheltered or lived in "extremely insecure housing" over the previous 5 years.[x]
  • Homelessness generally includes not only people living in the street, in shelters, or in structures considered unfit for human habitation, but also the "invisible" homeless:  especially "couch surfers" living on the generosity of friends or acquaintances.   And as the Homeless Hub notes, "for many people homelessness is not a static state but rather a fluid experience, where one’s shelter circumstances and options may shift and change quite dramatically and with frequency."[xi]
  • If you’re single, as most of the Back Door Mission's clients are, the maximum rent subsidy you get if you’re in the Ministry of Community and Social Service's Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) is $479.  If you’re on the alternative form of social assistance, ironically titled "Ontario Works," it’s $376 (plus a “Basic Needs” allowance of $305, meaning $681 total to live on). Six years ago the average rent for a “bachelor” unit in Durham Region was $619.[xii]  It's hard now to find a place in rooming house much below $500 a month, and that's changing fast.  
  • Poverty also means food “insecurity.”  That means being hungry a lot or most the time and living on a nutritionally poor, but cheap, high fat and carb diet.  358,963 people visited food banks in Ontario in March 2015 alone.  But these provide only three days of food at a time and generally limit visits to once a month.[xiii]
  • Poverty is bad for your health.  Research has indicated that males in the wealthiest 20% of Canadian neighborhoods live an average of more than four years longer than males in the poorest 20% neighborhoods.  Some population studies have been direr.  A McMaster University study found a 21-year difference in life expectancy between the poorest and wealthiest residents of Hamilton, Ontario.[xiv]
  • Then there’s the psychological effects: the “stress and anxiety of daily life,” the “depression, profound sadness and fear,” social stigma, and lack of self-respect.  If we do nothing else at the Back Door Mission we work hard at making people feel loved, welcomed, and honored.[xv] That’s reciprocated by what we’re told is a high level of regard among people on the street.
The sources cited contain much more information.  For further exploration and footnotes click on the following link:
Footnotes and Resources
​

​The Effects of Poverty

Adrian and Sherri's Story
In December of 2015 Sherri and Adrian, who live in Durham, fell upon hard times when Adrian lost his job due to a work injury.  Although Adrian was able to collect long term disability payments it was not enough to support him, his wife, their young daughter, 3 dogs and a cat.  Within a matter of time they could no longer make mortgage payments and the bank took their house.  Their finances exhausted on the house and living expenses, the first and last month’s rent required to rent an apartment were out of reach.  This left Adrian and his family homeless.  

With no home, no money, and nowhere to live, they turned to a homeless shelter.  Only one shelter in Durham provides emergency housing for families and then only for a limited time.  Once this was exhausted, there was nowhere else to go.  Destitute, Adrian and his family were forced to live in their car.  They ate at soup kitchens and food banks, and hung out at the library.  But living in a vehicle with a young daughter is against regulations administered by the Children's Aid Society.  The family again found themselves desperate to find a place to live.  Because they had already exhausted their time at the previous shelter, they were forced to split up.  

Sherrie and their daughter stayed at a local women's shelter while Adrian stayed in the car with the animals.  With the much loved animals adding to their financial burdens they decided to locate temporary care for the animals until they were back on their feet.  While seeking help from an animal rescue agency, at the same time they sought assistance for housing from Community Development Council Durham.  CDCD was able to provide last month’s rent.  Adrian and Sherrie could now locate an apartment -- but had a month and a half wait before they could move in.  

This created a new crisis.  No organization would help with living expenses and accommodation because Adrian's disability payments, on paper, were higher than the organization's threshold for assistance. This left Adrian in his car, and Sherrie and her daughter living at the shelter.  To add to their burdens, the animal rescue agency could not take their animals because their vaccine shots had expired.  After days of discouragement not knowing how they would get by, the animal rescue got back with an unexpected and generous offer to put the family and animals up in a hotel until their apartment was available.  Adrian and his family were elated!  Although they would continue eating at soup kitchens they now had a clean and safe place to stay, a semblance of stability and security for their daughter. 

As Adrian and his family patiently wait for the time when they can move into their new apartment, they continue seeking the assistance of food banks, soup kitchens and support from the displaced street community that has become their family.  Even with all they have gone through, they are happy and thankful to all the organizations that supported them in their time of need.  Sherri, who has never lost her beautiful smile through all of this comments, "faith gets you a long way." There is light at the end of their tunnel for Adrian and Sherri.  

Sadly, this is not the case for many others who find themselves trying to navigate the social assistance network.

Meet John
​John is an alcoholic.  Life circumstances and the tyranny of experience govern his choices and have gotten him to where he is.  Because of his illness he finds himself alone with nowhere to go.  He does not know where his children are and his siblings have exhausted all measure of sympathy and grace.  His alcoholism has left him homeless; he finds it difficult to access the social assistance network.  Although he does receive social assistance, much of it goes on alcohol.  The cold winter months are difficult for John as there is nowhere for him to go. There is only one men's shelter in the region and the length of stay is limited.  Winter works on its own schedule so when John's stay at the shelter is exhausted he is forced to live on the streets.  With temperatures reaching minus 10 degrees centigrade this is a difficult life for anyone, let alone a man in his senior years.  Lack of housing and limited available social assistance leave John with no other alternatives.

We're setting out to see what we can do to connect him with new sources of help.  It's not easy, as John simultaneously asks for help but resists anything that smacks of external control or direction -- clearly the consequence of life experiences.

Bryan's Dilemma - A Story in Progress
​Bryan is a wonderful man with a heart of gold.  However, Bryan has made decisions in life which have left him estranged from his family and living in squalor -- though thankful that he now has a bed to sleep on. He currently lives in a boarding house and does odd jobs around the building to stay active.

Bryan has a problem.  Bryan collects social assistance but does not know how his entitlements are disbursed. He does know that his current rent of $499 is paid directly to his landlord.  But he does not know where (he thinks) another $300 of social assistance, is going and doesn't know how to find out.  Bryan would like to move into a new place since his current circumstances pose tangible threats to his well being, but doesn't know where to start. Thanks to issues in Bryan's past life (now largely resolved) he is under the care of a trustee who has primary control of his funds. Added to this, Bryan has trouble with details.  From what Bryan can recall, he has had four trustees over the past four years but does not know the identity of the latest individual.  Bryan has tried to obtain information from case workers in several organizations with no luck. Without a phone and with a limited understanding of how the system works, he finds himself lost.  

Bryan obtains food from food banks and soup kitchens, and toiletries and clothes from shelters.  Feeling trapped, he has spent his days wandering from hangout to hangout with no change on the horizon. In Brian's words, "You have to have some reason to get up in the morning.  It's hard to do though because, being caught in this system, there is no need to strive because it's the same routine every day and there's no way to get out."  He comes to the Back Door Mission to socialize and to  get help navigating the system.  Or if nothing else, he  says, just a listening ear.
​
The Back Door Mission is finding answers for Bryan.  We have located his trustee and know now how he can access his funds and what needs to be done to arrange redirection of payments for a new room or apartment.  Now we can set out to help Bryan with other issues he needs tackled.