Homeless Increase as Welfare Declines

July 26, 2006: Victoria News

Jeff Munro spends afternoons and evenings on a patch of pavement between the Market on Yates and London Drugs.

When passersby shake their heads in response to his oft cried, "spare some change," Munro always responds with a polite, "That's OK, thank you."

Born in Victoria, Munro lost his job as a landscaper after he fell on his head in an accident two years ago. He depends on social assistance to cover his living expenses.

"But you've got to fight for it all the time," he said. "It's an ongoing hassle because they're always changing the rules."

Munro isn't the only one complaining about the rules.

Victoria city council recently passed a resolution urging the provincial government to reduce barriers to income assistance.

Councillors argued provincial bureaucratic hurdles have doubled the number of homeless people sleeping in parks and on streets.

"The situation on the streets is becoming more difficult and frankly, more desperate," said Coun. Dean Fortin.

A January 2005 count found about 700 people to be homeless in the city. Hundreds more are considered at risk of homelessness. Seventy- five per cent of those living on the street are not accessing income assistance.

In 2002, the province instituted three key changes to the welfare application process: a three-week wait, a two-year independence test and an electronic system for all initial enquiries that includes a 1- 800 line and the compulsory use of an on-line computer orientation.

A report completed by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group in March 2006 stated: "The process of seeking income assistance has become so restrictive, and so complicated to navigate, that it is systematically excluding from assistance many of the very people most in need of help."

The research paper also stated the number of people receiving welfare plummeted by 42 per cent between 2001 and 2005. "The recent drop in caseload is not the result of more people leaving welfare. Rather, fewer people are entering the system and accessing assistance. Simply put, the caseload reduction is mainly a front- door story."

In Munro's experience, not only are more people living on the streets, but more women have turned to prostitution because they can't access welfare money.

"I can always get a date to pay $3 for (oral sex)," said Dawn, who didn't want to use her last name. While Dawn receives disability and social assistance, she sleeps on the streets because there's no affordable rental units.

"Unless you want to live in a slum."

The Victoria council resolution stated that landlords relying on rents at current welfare rates find it difficult to maintain their buildings.

A single employable person on welfare receives $510 a month - $325 for shelter and $185 for all other needs.

"But that's not everybody on assistance," said Anne McKinnon, communications manager for the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance.

Two-thirds of people receiving welfare are slotted into different welfare categories, such as persons with disabilities, which receive $856 a month.

Dawn does receive disability but said she's often refused places to rent because she's dirty. Instead of sleeping at night, she walks.

"I walk until I collapse," she said, adding that the violence is getting worse.

She's been beat with a two-by-four, woken up by punches to her face and literally had someone put the boots to her.

The Community Housing Registry estimates that in any given month 400 people are actively looking for subsidized housing, more than half of whom are homeless or about to be.

Copyright 2006 Victoria News