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Post by ocelot on Jun 27, 2007 9:18:45 GMT -5
Calgary has 3rd-highest shelter population in Canada: report
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 | 12:14 PM MT
CBC News
A new national report says Calgary has the third-highest homeless shelter population in the country, despite the city's prosperity.
The report, released Tuesday by the Calgary-based Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership, says the number of homeless people in Calgary has grown by 740 per cent since 1994.
"We're seeing some of the biggest extremes in Canada happening right here," said Gordon Laird, the report's author.
Laird places the blame on the provincial government.
"The provincial government throughout the 1990s basically made it clear they didn't like poor people," said Laird.
Laird says with more and more people unable to afford housing, the government's response was to "warehouse" people in emergency shelters.
Grant Neufeld, co-ordinator of the Calgary Housing Action Initiative, agrees the government has focused too much on shelters.
"We're basically throwing money away by putting in these institutional responses rather than actually getting people into homes," said Neufeld.
Laird says money would be better spent by raising the minimum wage in Alberta and providing rent subsidies so working people don't need to live in shelters.
According to the report, homelessness is costing Canadians between $4.5 billion and $6 billion a year.
One in seven emergency shelter users in Canada is a child, and almost one-third are between 16 and 24 years old, according to the report.
The report calls for a new national strategy on homelessness and affordable housing.
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Post by ocelot on Jun 27, 2007 9:23:30 GMT -5
We have more jobs than people and we have the third largest shelter population in Canada? It's terrible when people who are getting paid $9 - 11/hr for full-time hours can't find affordable housing. Most people make at least $10/hr because there are so many jobs that if you offer jobs for under that you will find it almost impossible to find workers.
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Post by achebeautiful on Jun 27, 2007 19:58:20 GMT -5
Very interesting, and I am curious to learn what you suggest as a solution, Leona. For instance, what type of jobs are most of what you would find in Calgary that there are so many of them? Are they jobs that can reasonably pay more money without hurting their bottom line? Would these businesses leave Calgary for somewhere else if they were required to pay their employees more money? Is requiring businesses to pay their workers more the solution, or getting realtors to lower the cost of buying a home? I'm just curious as to what you think the underlying problem here is, and what you propose as the solution.
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Post by ocelot on Jun 27, 2007 22:36:49 GMT -5
The biggest problems in my mind have been with the government's handling of the problem. There has been no rent controls at all and in some cases people's rent has jumped from 800 to 1800 and therefore the person living there has had to move because no one can adjust to a $1000 increase per month in rent. There is also not enough government assisted living or subsidies for low-income people. I think the underlying problem is that there simply isn't enough affordable housing and building more homeless shelters will not help this problem.
The jobs almost range through everything, because of the oilsands boom in Alberta the economy has skyrocketed but the government has not adjusted well at all to it. It's come to a point where you can't expect good customer service because retail jobs only pay $9 - 10/hr and who would want to have a job that makes them $10/hr when they can probably get a different job for $12-13/hr. The minimum wage was increased from $7/hr to $8/hr but if you offer that kind of wage you are not likely to find employees. There are tons of warehouse jobs that pay $15/hr or more.
I really think that people need to be able to find affordable housing (renting) or have government subsidies for low-income people. The subsidies should only last till the government builds affordable housing.
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Post by achebeautiful on Jun 28, 2007 15:18:55 GMT -5
Very interesting observations, Leona. Tell me more, because I am perhaps more confused now than I was before. Something in my mind is not registering.
It sounds as if you want the government to just about have its hand on every aspect of this situation, and, for what they already touch they are badly failing. The part that the government involved themselves was to raise the minimum wage, and from what you are saying it hasn't helped much. So, in your mind is it because the government did not raise the minimum wage enough, or because raising it wasn't all that everyone promised it would be?
You are also saying that no one can adjust to a $1000 increase in their rent, so does this mean that there are vacancies all over Calgary....that while many are homeless, many homes sit unattended? If that is the case, then aren't the realtors going to lower the rent just to get somebody to bring them some money in? Why would the government have to involve themselves in that? Someone who is selling something can put whatever price they want on something, but they are only going to sell it for what people are willing to pay.
If the economy has skyrocketed so much, why do you need the government for assistance? A strong economy only needs for the government to get out of the way!
If there are tons of jobs that pay $15 or more, then shouldn't that itself take care of the low income problem? Surely that is decent money, and if there are tons of those jobs available as you say, then shouldn't more low income people be taking those jobs? What exactly can the government do that business isn't already doing then?
There has to be a reason why there are tons of jobs that pay $15 or more, and yet so many people who are low income in Calgary. There also has to be a reason why realtors are charging so much to rent their apartments, if nobody can afford it. That alone would put the realtor out of business of his own doing!
Retail jobs never pay a lot of money, nor should they. You can get the government to mandate that they pay a much higher wage all you want, but the results will only reflect on the customer. In other words, if you make it mandatory by the government to largely increase retail positions, those costs will directly go into the price of what you are buying. Now, instead of having employees who are making too little, you will have customers who can't afford the product. Other results of this sort of thing include the company hiring far fewer employees, making the workload that much greater (and retail is not an easy job). Worst of all, some, if not many businesses will simply take their business elsewhere, where the climate is more favorable to their goals.
One thing I am curious to know is why so many are considered low income. There are a variety of reasons I am sure. But are all of the reasons the fault of businesses, or even the responsibility of the government to solve? Are some people low income of their very own doing? Do some of them have opportunities and are simply not taking them?
Leona, these are all just observations of mine, and in no way am I disagreeing with you about any of this. You live there, and you know about it far better than I do. I'm very interested in the posts people make here, and you have grabbed my attention with this one.
Thank you so much for sharing, and please, by all means continue to educate me about all of this stuff that I know so little about!
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Post by ocelot on Jun 28, 2007 18:07:45 GMT -5
The places that had a $1000 increase in rent have been filled by people with better jobs. The previous tenants couldn't afford that type of increase, alot of the tenants that have found themselves in these positions are the elderly who are living off their savings and old-age pension. There is less than 0.5% housing vacancy. I think the minimum wage increase was useless, because the wages is not the problem. The huge increases in cost of living is the huge problem and alot of these are from the housing situation. The rents have mostly doubled or in some cases tripled since I came to Calgary.
The problem with the $15/hr jobs is that they are in less than ideal locations and you need transportation to get to them. Most of the homeless don't have cars and transit isn't very good because they need at least 100 more transit workers. The routes that tend to get cancelled the most are the industry routes.
Mark, the retail stores are overworked because there aren't enough workers. Pretty much every store you go into here has a help wanted sign and it's very hard to figure out the stores because alot of stores close early because they don't have enough workers. The problem is that the people who are low-income can't afford to live here. There are also people who probably wouldn't be considered low-income that can't afford the rents.
The biggest problem is that the economy skyrocketed so quickly and the government was not on top of it. They had temporary solutions to problems that were only going to get worse and now there is a huge mess.
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Post by achebeautiful on Jun 29, 2007 10:49:15 GMT -5
You and I have a difference of opinion regarding the role of government, Leona. We alraedy knew that going into this discussion. We also disagree with regards to business, but that, too is no big surprise.
I am very interested in your observations, and learn a lot from your sharing them. I'll trust your views about this situation because you are closer to it and have the knowledge of it. I hope that the problems find real solutions, and that those solutions come sooner than later.
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