Kendall Worth: Community Services transformation is getting back up
Kendall Worth hears that the welfare transformation project at Community Services is starting up again, and people in his community have lots of questions.
Poverty
Judy Haiven: Pre-election goodies
Judie Haiven looks at two pre-election goodies coming our way compliments of the provincial government, money for long term care and affordable housing.
Kendall Worth: “Summertime is the most socially isolated time of year for the both of us”
Reporter Kendall Worth meets up with Marie and Alice, two women on social assistance who dream about the day when they can afford to live somewhere where during the summer months they can have a BBQ out on their back decks or on their balconies. “Summertime is the most socially isolated time of year for the both of us, because of lack of funds to do things and the extra time spent by our lonesome,” they tell him.
PSA: Statement from Halifax Mutual Aid
PSA: Halifax Mutual Aid response to the city’s July 13 ultimatum. “We can not in good conscience put people in a worse situation than they are currently in.”
Halifax sets deadline to destroy mutual aid crisis shelters as councillors dodge accountability
The city of Halifax is telling people living in crisis shelters to leave their temporary homes by June 13, or they will call the cops and make it so. Councillors should stop hiding behind an amorphous city and become accountable for the city’s actions.
Lily Barraclough: Why our votes matter this provincial election
Lily Barraclough speaks with fellow activists about the mess we’re in, what Covid taught us about a just recovery and how to leverage the upcoming provincial election. “the pandemic has created an opening for massive systemic change,” she writes.
Media release: End the discriminatory and racist practice of issuing birth alerts for “at risk” birth parents and their babies
Media release: Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice is calling on the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services to follow British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, PEI and most recently, Newfoundland and Labrador, in ending the discriminatory and racist practice of issuing birth alerts for “at risk” parents and their babies.
James Sawler: Affordable housing is crucial infrastructure and should be financed publicly
Economist James Sawler on the report by the Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission. “Affordable housing is crucial infrastructure, and since its benefits accrue not just to individual households but across our entire society (bestowing what economists call positive externalities), like most infrastructure, it should be financed publicly.”
Kendall Worth: Lives on welfare – Nathan’s story
Kendall Worth profiles Nathan (not his real name), who tells Kendall about his tiny income assistance budget, his loneliness and his fragile mental health.
Wellness Within: Defunding the police requires changing how we think about security
Martha Paynter in her submission to the Define Defunding the Police working group on behalf of Wellness Within: “Defunding requires changing how we think about security. It means removing these responsibilities from police and returning them to government and community resources offered by individuals trained in supporting our most vulnerable. Defunding should respond to the needs of the community and could look like support for local safe injection sites, sobering centres, restorative justice programs, and mental health crisis teams.”