Links
City in Focus says,
The only permanent solution to housing need and poverty is to ensure that people have access to adequate income. The crucial first stage in achieving this goal is to enact legislation guaranteeing workers a living wage and welfare recipients a shelter allowance that reflects the actual cost of their regional housing market.
Carnegie Community Action Project
Working to build community in the Downtown East Side
Canadian Social Research Links
This site is a virtual resource centre for Canadian social program information. This webpage is a compilation of key provincial and territorial government welfare links – it’s a great resource for getting the government perspective on welfare issues and for comparing data from one province/territory to another.
On September 5, 2007, the Colour of Justice Network announced the launching of the Colour of Poverty Campaign – a province-wide community-based effort to help raise public awareness about the serious problem of poverty within the racialized communities ofOntario. With the Department of Canadian Heritage as a key sponsor, the Colour of Poverty Campaign partners have developed a series of ten Fact Sheets addressing different aspects of racialized poverty and its negative impacts on education & learning, health & well-being, employment, income levels, justice and policing, immigration and settlement, housing and homelessness and food security in Ontario.
Why Poverty is So Deep in the Downtown Eastside
This article by Jean Swanson, Coordinator of the Carnegie Community Action Project and long-term anti-poverty activist, provides useful background on the Downtown Eastside and clearly outlines the impact of policy changes on this community.
BC Progress Board Report: Monitoring and Reducing the Incidence of Poverty (July 10, 2007)
In 2005. BC ranked second last in Canada in terms of the proportion of families living below low income cut-offs (LICO) at 17.3 percent compared to the Canadian average of 15.2 percent and top performing PEI with 9.4 percent BC’s share has been above the Canadian average since 1995, and while it has been on a generally decreasing track since 1997.British Columbiahad the lowest annual improvement of the provinces between 1996 and 2005.
Previous Progress Board research suggests that lower labour market engagement in BC vis-a-visCanada, as well as differences in provincial and federal transfers and taxes explain some of the difference in BC’s performance on LICO. BC’s underground economy — unreported legal activities such as under-the-table services, and illegal activities such as those related to the drug trade — is likely a contributing factor to BC’s lower relative labour market engagement Paradoxically, BC’s official employment rate has been climbing steadily over the last five years. Though direct measurement and comparison of the size of the underground economy is difficult due to its hidden nature, a larger relative service sector and higher drug-related crime and drug use suggest BC likely has a larger underground economy than Canada overall. Underground economic activity blurs the relationship between official low income and measurements of poverty. However. despite this. efforts to monitor and reduce poverty by increasing productive labour market engagement must continue to be a priority. Recent provincial initiatives to increase housing options is an important initiative to help improve living standards for many people, especially for those in strained circumstances.
See full report Page 38
More resources to come soon!
