Kendall Worth on the challenges and rewards of Valentine’s Day for people on low incomes and income assistance. The problem is mostly with a lack of money, and also stigma. However, love conquers all when we get creative.
Poverty activist and frequent contributor Brenda Thompson writes about adults only buildings and the law. She was one of the activists who, in the early 1980s, brought about changes that make discrimination based on source of income (welfare) and age (whether you have children) illegal. Landlords openly break that law all the time, and the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission just sits back.
“For many years I held full time employed positions, mainly minimum wage, and have paid my taxes dutifully to this government. Then something happened in my life that rendered me and my 16 year old daughter homeless. As a last resort I took myself and my daughter to seek refuge at a homeless shelter. My daughter was accepted without a problem, but I was not accepted as I was employed full time.” Lucy MacDonald shares a letter she sent to premier Stephen McNeil about being homeless, and about trying to make ends meet while on Income Assistance.
We featured Brent and Donna, the Sheet Harbour couple on income assistance, in an earlier story about the terrible state of disrepair of their public housing unit. Community Services used to pay their entire power bill, but last week they contacted me because all of a sudden they are saddled with a $60 monthly share. They don’t know why, and they don’t know how they are going to deal with it.
Earlier today we posted a letter to premier Stephen McNeil written by a new coalition of poverty organizations and advocates who want a substantial increase in income assistance rates and real input in the Employment Support and Income Assistance transformation that is mostly happening in secret and without real community input. That letter was a bit long, this press release is the Coles notes version.
Last December a coalition of more than 25 anti-poverty organizations and advocates released A Call to Action: Community Agenda for Social Assistance Adequacy and Reform. Not satisfied with the response by a civil servant, the coalition once again makes its case, asking for a a substantial increase in Income Assistance rates, meaningful consultation, and a meeting with the premier. Meanwhile, there are way more signatories now.
The raise in income assistance rates that the government keeps talking about will leave many recipients with less buying power than they had in 2016, the last year the rates were increased. We do the math.
Kendall Worth on why income assistance rates should be raised not by a tiny bit but to a healthy amount like $2500 a month. “It is all about the fact that as much as any other human being people on income assistance have the right to a sense of social belonging,” he writes.
Kendall Worth interviews five couples, and what starts out as a story about the money people on income assistance give up when in a relationship turns into a story about people finding new inspiration, courage and energy, no matter what the cost.
Poverty activist and Income Assistance recipient Tim Blades on poverty in Nova Scotia. “I speak from experience that when you speak up, you can open eyes to what is going on and embolden others to speak up as well. To have such poverty in Nova Scotia is unconscionable. It’s time for a change. It’s 2018.”