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Raise the Rates - 5 Demands

BC needs a long term Poverty Reduction Strategy. However, in the short term, 5 simple policy changes would lift hundreds of thousands of BC’s poorest residents out of poverty and homeless people off the streets:
  1. Increase income assistance rates for all, including people with disabilities, to a level that provides an adequate living standard; index new rates to the cost of living. More>>

  2. Remove the arbitrary barriers that keep people in need from receiving income assistance, including the 2-year independence test, the 3-week work search, employment plans, web orientation, lack of transportation, and inordinate documentation demands; guarantee access to income assistance for all BC residents regardless of citizenship status or participation in immigrant sponsorship. More >>

  3. End the clawbacks – let all people on income assistance have an earnings exemption of $500/month and allow parents to keep all child support payments. More >>

  4. Increase the minimum wage to $10/hour and index to inflation; ensure that all workers get at least $10 an hour; end the $6 training wage. More >>

  5. Build at least 2000 units of non-market social housing per year in addition to assisted living units and shelter beds. More >>
Complete document (PDF)

The Appalling Situation

We are shocked by the scandalous and continuing existence of abject poverty in a province experiencing a long-term boom and boasting a budget surplus of $4.1 billion in 2007.  This is clearly an infringement of the human rights of BC’s vulnerable people.  

Some statistics:

International Human Rights

What does the United Nations say about Canada’s record on poverty?

The key point is that BC continues to act in violation of its obligations under international law to respect, protect and fulfill the fundamental rights of vulnerable British Columbians to food, clothing, and shelter.

Postcard Campaign

Send a postcard to Gordon Campbell
  
to tell him you want action now.

Poverty Olympics February 3


Photo by Murray Bush, flux foto

Fun and games amid serious talk. Organizers wanted the world to see that "Vancouver has world-class poverty". See the Poverty Olympics website: povertyolympics.ca

News

April 22, 2008
CCPA's "Living on Welfare in BC" Report Released
Endorsed by Raise the Rates.
A ground-breaking study that for two years followed British Columbians living on welfare paints a disturbing picture of how people are forced to make ends meet under new welfare rules and low rates. At a press conference this morning, Seth Klein and Jane Pulkingham, co-authors of the report spoke about their findings, and emphasised how hard life is on welfare. The recommendations include raising welfare rates, indexing them to inflation, and re-instating the earnings exemption for all welfare recipients. Full Report>>

April 21, 2008
Community Slams Condo Plan, Process
Vancouver Downtown Eastside community members and housing advocates are gathering tomorrow to hold a consultation that they say the City of Vancouver was legally required to do, but didn't do, on a new condo project in the neighbourhood. More>>

April 14, 2008
UN Complaint Over Homelessness
Advocates for Downtown Eastside residents have launched a human rights complaint with the United Nations against the federal government for failing to offer adequate housing. More>>

April 14, 2008
Join Province-wide 'STANDs FOR HOUSING'
People in 25 towns and cities in the province have committed to hold STANDs on May 3, and housing activists hope for many more. They invite you to Stand with concerned citizens in your home community during a province-wide day of action on Saturday, May 3, from 1-2 pm. More>>

April 14, 2008
CCAP's new report "Disappearing Homes"
Nearly half of the privately owned residential hotel rooms in Downtown Eastside are closed, in grave danger of being closed, or unavailable to people on welfare because their rents are too high. Click here to access full report on how SRO closures and conversions are pointing to yet another increase in homelessness and what can be done about it.

April 9, 2008
Homelessness on the Rise
Results from the Homelessness Count 2008 are in. Homelessness is now evident in the city's wealthier neighbourhoods and has doubled since 2005 in several outlying municipalities, including the North Shore, the Tri-Cities, Burnaby and Delta. More>>

March 17, 2008
Sign the HOUSING NOT WAR Declaration
Anti-poverty advocates of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC) and the Canadian Peace Alliance are joining forces to launch a national HOUSING NOT WAR campaign. Canada once had a world-renowned National Housing Program - but it was scrapped in the 1990s. Soon after, municipalities across Canada declared homelessness a national disaster. Today 300,000 people in Canada experience homelessness with its violence, illness and death. More >>

February 28, 2008
Harper Budget Stiffs Homeless
Monte Paulsen, TheTyee.ca
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 2008 budget offers nothing to alleviate the housing insecurity already worrying more than 1.5 million Canadian households, and effectively threatens to withdraw what little federal funding exists to help the nation's homeless. More >>

February 20, 2008
SPARC BC releases report
The Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia released their new report Still Left Behind: A Comparison of Living Costs and Employment Assistance Rates in British Columbia. The primary finding of this report is that the 2007 increases to BC Employment and Assistance rates did little to improve the ability of recipients to cover minimum living costs. There have been no material changes made to the welfare structure since that time, but inflation has continued to erode the meager incomes available to people receiving assistance in BC. Full report >>

February 11, 20088
Forget 2010: The Poverty Olympics are here and now
Timothy Taylor, Globe and Mail They sang, they marched, they ran the Welfare Hurdles. If the Downtown Eastside has one luxury, it's the wealth of its humanity. More >>

See the Poverty Olympics website: povertyolympics.ca

 

News archive >>

 

©2007-2008 Raise the Rates • Contact last updated on April 22, 2008