Poverty activist Kendall Worth reminds people attending the Halifax May Day celebration that the desire for dignity and a half decent life is as real and as urgent for people on social assistance as it is for all working people.
Roving reporter and anti-poverty advocate Jodi Brown meets up with Crystal, a public housing tenant in Halifax who has a sad and way too common story to tell about public housing waiting lists.
Another episode in our series Lives on Welfare where people living in poverty tell their stories: Things went relatively well for Emma, a mother who lives with her daughter in a town an hour or so away from Halifax. Then she got sick, lost her job, and ended up on social assistance. Then her daughter also got sick.
We’ve written quite a bit lately on 2015 census data and what they tell us about poverty from a geographic perspective. Now there is a report that looks at trends over the last 30 years. Which neighborhoods are getting poorer, which ones are getting wealthier?
While researching her new book on poor houses in Nova Scotia Brenda Thompson doesn’t let a couple of No Trespassing signs slow her down. “I’ll admit, I was so excited by the idea of getting closer to the cemetery that I took off running, leaving my husband and shoes behind. I climbed over three fences and ran barefoot across the field to get closer to the graves of the poor house inmates.”
We interview food security expert Dr. Valerie Tarasuk, who will be visiting Nova Scotia later this week. She talks about hunger counts that don’t count hunger, food banks that don’t solve food insecurity, and income thresholds that don’t reflect it. Also, why people who are food insecure get sick so much, even if the illness has nothing to do with diet. And finally, what we should do to fix the problem.
Poverty activist Kendall Worth interviews Kelly, who earns just a bit above minimum wage, about her fears and hopes, and how she makes ends meet.
Activist and talented photographer Jodi Brown went to the rally by unhappy Metcap Living tenants of a large apartment building on 15 Kennedy Drive, in Dartmouth. Here are her photos and her report.
Poverty activist and frequent contributor Kendall Worth writes about several couples who weren’t receiving the full shelter allowance they were entitled to, how it was discovered, and how it was fixed. News you can use.
A private for-profit blood supply system is not welcome in Nova Scotia, and the provincial government should enact legislation as soon as possible to ensure private companies do not get to set up shop here. That was the main message at this morning’s press conference organized by unions, the Nova Scotia Health Coalition and Bloodwatch, an organization that advocates for a safe, voluntary, public blood system in Canada.