Poverty Report – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Apr 20, 2017 

By Jordan Press

OTTAWA – A new report calls on the federal government to not just think about opening the back door to help people out of homelessness, but to close the front door as well, to make sure they don’t become homeless in the first place.

The paper released today by researchers at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness says that the money poured annually into helping fund emergency services for the country’s homeless is only one part of the equation, as are additional dollars spent on housing those who need it.

What’s needed is a national approach that sees a need to stop homelessness from occurring, similar to the preventive approach taken in health care, the authors say.

They discuss the need for income supports for low-income earners, such as higher minimum wages or benefit rates, boosting the stock of affordable housing, anti-discrimination training for social workers, service providers and first responders, as well as a more co-ordinated approach to poverty spending.

That spending could include, for example, programs targeted at helping children in child services make the transition to adult life, because they are more likely to become homeless and stay that way longer, making it more difficult to pull them out of it.

And yet even the authors acknowledge that the idea of putting public dollars and effort towards prevention is, in some cases, a controversial idea.

(The Canadian Press)

INDEX: NATIONAL POLITICS