Almost 30 per cent of families in Toronto are poor and the median income here is $10,000 lower than in the rest of the country, a new report finds..
Canada’s poverty capital
Nov 26, 2007 04:30 AM
Laurie Monsebraaten
Rita Daly
Staff Reporters
More Toronto families are slipping into poverty at a time when families in the rest of the GTA, the province, and the country are seeing their economic prospects stabilize and even improve, says a groundbreaking report to be released today.
While national incomes have surged in recent years, almost 30 per cent of Toronto families – approximately 93,000 households raising children – live in poverty, compared with 16 per cent in 1990. This economic decline is a warning that, despite outward signs of prosperity, the country’s largest city is falling behind, says the report by the United Way of Greater Toronto.
The dire financial plight of so many Toronto families cries out for immediate action from all levels of government, as well as business leaders, United Way president Frances Lankin said.
“This is a stunning foretelling,” she said. “The warning these numbers hold point to a broad assault on our economy and to our well-being.”
The report comes at a time when the Ontario government is about to draft a poverty-reduction strategy with goals and timetables. Lankin said the report’s findings show that any provincial strategy must address Toronto’s unique challenges.
“If we don’t have a specific strategy – with goals and timetables for Toronto – the provincial numbers will mask the depth of what is happening in this city.”
Although the rest of the GTA is faring well, Lankin said a corresponding growth in the number of low-income families should sound alarm bells for political leaders in the suburbs, too.
“The lack of social service supports in the 905 relative to the population growth and the number of people living in poverty is going to hit hard,” Lankin said.
The report, Losing Ground: The Persistent Growth of Family Poverty in Canada’s Largest City, charts median family incomes in Toronto, the GTA, Ontario and Canada. It paints a sobering picture of the city against a national backdrop of high rates of employment, strong job growth and corporate profits.
Since 2000, Toronto’s median family income after taxes and transfers of $41,100, the midpoint for all households raising children 17 and under, has remained relatively stagnant and is now $10,000 lower than the rest of Canada and almost $20,000 less than the rest of the GTA, the report says.
Among two-parent families, nearly one in five now lives in poverty in the city compared with about one in 10 at the national, provincial and regional level, while more than half of single-parent households in Toronto are poor. The report defines poverty as a family whose after-tax income is 50 per cent below the median in their community, taking family size into consideration. In Toronto a two-parent family with two children living on less than $27,500 is considered poor.
In short, the report says Toronto families are losing ground on every measure – in median incomes, the percentage of low-income families and the sheer number of families living in poverty.
Venise Bedard, a single mother of two, took a job transfer from North Bay to Toronto four years ago to improve her economic prospects, only to be laid off by her telemarketing firm six months later.
Determined to make the best of her situation, she took out a $25,000 OSAP loan and went back to school to fulfill a lifelong dream to become a social service worker.
She worked part-time while studying to help pay the bills, but when it came time to do her community placement, the OSAP money had run out and she had nowhere left to turn. Unable to juggle a full-time job, school and her responsibilities as a mom, she reluctantly applied for welfare. The experience nearly broke her spirit.
Bedard, 29, is collecting about $1,000 a month in welfare, while paying $925 in rent for a one-bedroom apartment near Jane St. and Lawrence Ave. She relies on her GST credit and her $500 monthly child benefit cheque for food and clothing for herself and her two children, now 9 and 2.
She hopes to defy the odds and find a steady job after the Women Moving Forward program at the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre encouraged her to complete her community placement. She received her social service worker diploma this month. But for now, living on less than $19,000 a year, life is a daily struggle.
A single parent with two children in Toronto needs more than $23,375 to escape poverty.
“People on welfare are stuck,” says Bedard, who always supported herself in North Bay. “In Toronto, there is no money for anything but rent so you are stuck in your apartment. You can’t afford bus fare to look for work. Then, if you get the job, you can’t afford the transit to get there until you get your first paycheque.”
The report shows Toronto’s poorest families have actually fared better since 2000, due to yearly increases to the national child benefit, marginal hikes in welfare rates and a rising provincial minimum wage. The poorest are defined as those families with incomes falling 75 per cent below the median, taking into consideration family size and children’s ages. It shows that small public policy changes can improve the lives of families living in deepest poverty, the report says.
When combined with changes such as improved access to employment insurance, beefed up labour laws, and dental and vision care for low-wage workers, poverty can be reduced even more substantially, the report adds.
Any big city is a magnet for lower-income families, like Bedard’s. Toronto is also a first stop for many new immigrants. It offers a vast supply of rental housing – 46 per cent of city households are renters. And it runs the largest stock of subsidized housing in the country.
But few non-profit housing units have been built in the past decade that would otherwise explain the rise in poor families in Toronto.
Since 2000, the city has seen a net loss of jobs, many of them well-paying and unionized, while elsewhere job creation is on the rise. At the same time jobs have been replaced by temporary, part-time and contract work that offer no job security, benefits or eligibility for employment insurance.
As a result, an alarming number of households are in deep financial trouble as seen by an increase in the number of evictions, family debt and bankruptcies since 2000, a year when the crippling recession of the 1990s had clearly eased in the rest of the country, the report says. From 1999 to 2006, landlord applications for eviction due to nonpayment of rent climbed from 19,795 to more than 25,000. Also, the number of people receiving credit counselling in Toronto has almost doubled in the past six years to an average of 4,534 per month.
Not surprisingly, the number of moneylending outlets has increased almost eightfold since 1995 to more than 300, largely concentrated in the low-income neighbourhoods.
“This city, this region, is great,” said Lankin. “But to be truly great, it needs to be great for everyone. So let’s take that next step to get there.”
The measures
The United Way report uses Statistics Canada tax filing data to calculate median family incomes in Toronto. The median divides household income into two parts: half of families live on more while the other half lives on less.
The low-income measure or LIM, used in Quebec and in European countries, defines poverty as those living on 50 per cent of the median income, taking family size and ages of children into account.
The United Way defines a family as one or two parents raising children 17 and younger.
Total income is from all sources, after taxes and government transfers such as the Child Tax Benefit or welfare.
By the numbers
3 number of reports in the 18 months, each warning of a rise of poverty in the city. The first was a Toronto blue-ribbon task force report, Time for a Fair Deal, in 2006, a TD Economics special report published in July of this year, and today’s United Way report, Losing Ground.
29 the percentage of low-income families in Toronto in 2005, up from 16 per cent in 1990. The GTA, the province and Canada all have fewer than 20 per cent.
52 percentage of the city’s single-parent families living on low incomes and raising children aged 17 and under. In 1990, it was one in three.
30 percentage of families with a single parent in Toronto in 2005. Their numbers continue to climb in the city, accounting for all growth in the number of families with children 17 and younger, since 2000.
50 percentage of people receiving credit counselling from Credit Canada has risen about 50 per cent, from 2,993 per month in 2001 to 4,534 per month in 2007.
26 percentage that evictions for nonpayment of rent in Toronto rose between 1999 and 2006. That year, landlords applied for more than 25,000 evictions.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/279839
Ontario leads in child poverty
Nov 26, 2007 11:53 AM
Bruce Campion-Smith
Ottawa bureau chief
OTTAWA – One in eight children in Canada – 788,000 in all – are living in poverty, a new report says.
Ontario remains the “child poverty capital,” with 345,000 children living in impoverished conditions, according to the 2007 national report card on child and family poverty in Canada.
“More parents are working but are still poor,” said Ann Decter, national co-ordinator of Campaign 2000, which released the report card this morning.
“It does not have to be this way.”
Eighteen years after the Commons passed an all-party resolution to end child poverty in Canada, little progress has been made “despite a growing economy, soaring dollar and low employment,” Decter told a Parliament Hill news conference.
Having a job is no answer to escaping poverty – in 2005, 41 per cent of all low-income children lived in families where at least one parent had a full-time job, she said.
Teachers see the sad consequences of child poverty every day in their classrooms – in students who are malnourished, who don’t have winter clothing and who don’t have the money to pay for field trips, said Emily Noble, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation.
Among the revelations in the report card:
-Children of recent immigrants and single mothers as well as children with disabilities all face greater chances of growing up poor.
-The average low-income family needs $9,000 to $11,000 more in annual income to raise themselves above the poverty level.
-Poor families rely on food banks for their meals. In 2006, 20,900 children used food banks, double the number in 1989.
-Child poverty rates are at double-digits in all provinces except for Alberta, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.
-Decter was joined by MPs from the three opposition parties, who supported the call for a national strategy to set timelines and targets to reduce poverty rates for children and adults.
Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla (Brampton-Springdale) noted that the Liberals recently unveiled a five-year strategy to cut the number of Canadians living below the poverty line by at least 30 per cent and the number of children living in poverty by 50 per cent in the same time span.
NDP MP Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) called child poverty a “national shame” and said the Conservatives’ recent mini-budget contained money devoted to tax cuts that should have gone to battling poverty.
“We have to decide as a country which comes first – corporate tax cuts or defeating child poverty,” Chow said.
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/279937
‘Poor’ residents on ‘rich’ street?
Debate arises over proposal to sell city’s homes that house low-income residents
Nov 26, 2007 04:30 AM
Donovan Vincent
CITY HALL BUREAU
Margaret Greaves has lived on Ellerbeck St. for six years, a Toronto street with well-kept houses and many stay-at-home moms busily tending to their kids during the day.
The quiet street that runs off Danforth Ave. near Broadview Ave. has been in the news since it was revealed that three houses there, valued at nearly $500,000, are owned by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation and are rented to low-income families.
Area councillor Case Ootes has proposed relocating the families and selling the properties. He argues it’s cheaper for taxpayers to house the poor in highrises. Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) owns about 550 single-family homes, about 5 per cent of which have a current market value of $500,000 or more, officials with the authority say.
Ootes insists these homes and some others should be sold, with the proceeds used toward rent supplements and the housing authority’s $300 million repair backlog.
“I don’t believe it’s cost-effective to house people in half-million-plus homes,” Ootes said in an interview last week.
Greaves believes it’s better to spread low-income homes around the city than have them concentrated in specific areas.
“I’m uncomfortable with the idea of low-income people only living in areas where the housing costs less,” she says.
Several other neighbours expressed similar sentiments, including Tom Allen, who lives right across from the three houses.
“People have to live somewhere, and it’s healthy to have a mixture rather than the rich one place and not-so-rich someplace else,” he said.
Allen said he wasn’t aware the homes were social housing until the recent controversy, adding he has walked by in the past and said hello to the kids playing out front. “They’re my neighbours.”
Professor Ernie Lightman, an economist at the University of Toronto who specializes in housing issues, says research clearly shows scattered low-income housing works best.
“If the goal is to let people live as normally as possible, then it’s clear the more integrated a community the better,” he says, noting that, like Allen, most people wouldn’t have been aware the families on Ellerbeck St. were in social housing.
The format of much of Toronto’s public housing has resulted in very troubled, isolated communities, Lightman says.
One need only look at the densely populated, low-income neighbourhoods of Regent Park and in the Jane and Finch Aves. area to understand concerns about ghettoizing residents.
Both have been plagued by gang and gun violence.
The city seems to be recognizing the mistakes made in neighbourhoods like this, moving instead to a model of integration.
“The notion that poor people don’t deserve to live in decent neighbourhoods in good-quality homes is a terribly outdated notion,” said housing advocate Michael Shapcott, a researcher with the Wellesley Institute, an urban affairs think-tank.
It reeks of “poor-bashing,” he says.
“The whole point of TCHC and its portfolio is to provide good homes throughout the city of Toronto, not just in a few highrise housing projects.”
For instance, Regent Park’s massive overhaul will see its former 100 per cent social housing concentration supplanted by a mixture of market condos, townhouses, and apartments with some rent-geared-to-income. A similar model is being considered for city housing in Lawrence Heights near Lawrence Ave. W. and the Allen Expressway.
Some people at city hall wonder whether Ootes has an ulterior motive in suddenly raising questions about the three properties. Both a resident on the street and the Toronto Parking Authority have expressed interest in buying the properties.
Ootes insists there’s no specific reason he waited until now to raise the issue at city hall.
Derek Ballantyne, CEO of TCHC, says highrise living is not the best option for large families with children. Besides, by selling off its real estate assets – TCHC has $6 billion worth – and reinvesting that money in housing stock, the housing authority is letting the province and Ottawa off the hook for its responsibilities, he says.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/279809
穷人被迫使用发薪日贷款 最终可能无法承担陷绝境
星报专讯/公益金(United Way)发表的多伦多贫困报告显示，由于没有其他选择并“对贫穷绝望”，许多穷人被迫使用发薪日贷款(Payday loans)和其他高价边缘财务产品，但他们很可能错误使用这些产品，最终无法承担其费用。
报告指出，发薪日贷款店日益增多，这是一个警告信号，预示许多多伦多人越来越穷。发薪日贷款是一种短期、无保障贷款，其利息从300%到1,000%不等。公益金敦促安省政府规范发薪日贷款业，为其利息设置上限。
利息300%到1000%
报告根据过去对边缘财务产品的研究做出，包括当铺和发薪日贷款业。公益金今年随机审查了多伦多的发薪日贷款店和兑现支票店。他们查看1995年的黄页广告，选择317家此类商店，分部39个地点。
报告说：“我们的目的不是横加指责边缘贷款业。显然，这些行业在市场找到合适位置，满足了人们获得便捷、简单信贷的需要。……我们关注的是，贫穷以及缺乏选择，迫使人们转向这些行业，而他们为此付出的代价与收入较高家庭的信贷成本相比，高出很多。如果家庭陷入这样的债务循环，他们能向孩子提供的机会就减少，无法给他们好的人生起点。”
造成借贷恶性循环
星报2004年曾对发薪日贷款业做出名为“利息问题”(Matter of Interest)的调查。结果显示，出于各种原因，发薪日贷款者等待薪水付帐，不得不使用高价贷款保持收支平衡。许多人最后无法还清本金、贷款费用和利息，陷入借贷恶性循环，每日都要支付高额费用和利息。
渥京去年底通过立法，允许各省规范发薪日贷款行业。数个省份都立法规管该行业，并设置利率上限，但安省仅在今年夏天实施消费者保护条例，要求贷款者向借款人清楚说明贷款费用，除此之外，没有其他规管措施。公益金呼吁省府立即采取下一步举措。
加拿大发薪日贷款协会(Canadian Payday Loan Association)旗下有23家发薪日贷款公司和450多家遍布全国的发薪日贷款店，数量占全国总量的逾三分之一。协会最近对其成员的安省客户进行民意调查，发现几乎所有客户都跟银行和信贷机构有联系，其中5人中有3人有储蓄帐户。一半客户有主流信用卡，二成人背负按揭。7人中有1人表示，他们别无选择，才使用发薪日贷款。调查还发现，三分之一的客户使用贷款购买生活必需品，这也是贷款的主要原因。调查访问503名客户，误差率为4.4%左右。
