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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, May 2, 2013 | 6 Working to alleviate poverty issues in Halton by David Lea and Julia Le Metroland West Media ­ Halton Spotlight "Connected to your Community" People living in poverty are just busy surviving, says Community Development Halton (CDH) Research Associate Rishia Burke. Some are barely scraping by on social assistance; others are caught up working multiple jobs so they can continue to provide for their families. Burke said she can't imagine the "tremendous stress" that comes along with surviving -- the hard choices people have to make each and every day, the isolation felt when you feel you have no one to turn to for help. She said communities are fragmented such that we're afraid to talk to each other when we could be working together to build healthy neighbourhoods. CDH believes poverty can be eliminated if everyone, including governments and community groups, can come together to build strong and supportive communities. "It is structural in how we respond to it and poverty is something we know enough about that we can change it," said CDH Executive Director Joey Edwardh. "We know enough about what has to be done that we could guarantee that people do not live in poverty." Edwardh noted that although the recession has helped people understand many factors create unemployment other than a person just not wanting to work, there are still misconceptions about those living in poverty. "Halton's stereotyping of the poor when you don't see people and don't want to know, has always been something we've had to deal with here at CDH," she said, adding that CDH has been going out into the neighbourhoods to break these stereotypes, engaging in community building activities. "Part of its strategy to tackle poverty is bringing neighbours together to build "their own relationships and trusts and what we call in our business, `social capital' to effectively take action together to make their neighbourhood a better place for them to live and for their children to grow up in or for their seniors to be contributing members," said Edwardh. It's a slow, methodical process, but one CDH believes is essential to addressing the issue. The organization has been working with other groups to build community gardens. It has also been engaging groups across Halton to hold events in their respective communities like dinner-and-a-movie nights or community dinners. "The community responds to inclusion," Rishia Burke is a research associate with Community Development Halton (CDH). She spends time going door-to-door in a CDH campaign that aims to foster community inclusion on issues of poverty. photo by Graham Paine­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog) Part IV said Edwardh. "When a community comes together and knows one another, the rampant stereotypes about poor people are set aside. You see your neighbour and see yourself also, in terms of what can happen to you, individually, that can lead you to a difficult situation because protections and social policies aren't in place to help you when you hit a bad time like losing your job, mental illness or chronic disease of some sort." CDH has also been working with sports groups to make recreation more accessible to low-income families. Meanwhile, members of the Halton Poverty Roundtable (HPRT) have been working to raise awareness among the region's poor about government services, such as guaranteed income supplements, tax credits and Living in Poverty: A Special Report is a fourpart Metroland Halton Division series examining the complex issue of poverty in the affluent region's communities. The series examines those who find themselves struggling to survive and who face deprivation, exclusion and isolation as a result. It looks at poverty's multiple dimensions, those who deal with it on a daily basis, contributing factors and barriers, possible solutions and resources that can offer assistance. more, which many qualify to receive, but few actually use. They believe there's no one thing that can alleviate poverty, but are working to tackle the issue, step by step. "There are things like the Canada Learning Bond, which nobody knows about," said Anne Swarbrick, director of community development, HPRT. "It's a grant program of the federal government, which provides $500 for a (child's post-secondary education) in a low-income family. It's one of the best kept secrets in all of Canada." Knowing what a low-income family is qualified for is also important in the area of recreation, said Swarbrick. Each municipality has a budget to help subsidize registration fees so kids aren't prevented from getting into recreation programs in the region. Easing the bureaucratic nightmare lowincome families must go through to get the services they need was another suggestion that emerged from talks with the community, undertaken by the HPRT. Specifically, the group is calling for the creation of a Halton Housing Centre so there would be one place people could call to find out about housing supports within the Halton community. The HPRT said currently no such place exists. More than anything, HPRT Co-Chair Marc Hamel said, poverty has to be looked at in a very different way. "It's not a matter of doing the same things we are doing, but just doing more of it. That's not the issue. It's such a complex problem and even doing something in one area can cause problems in another," he said. Both CDH and HPRT, among other groups, believe the government could do more by increasing the minimum wage, improving social assistance, establishing affordable housing policies and creating healthier families by having better access to transit, food, recreation and education. In an effort to address the affordable housing needs in Halton communities, the Region has been looking at ways to increase the units currently being offered. Sheldon Wolfson, the Region's social and community services department commissioner, said Halton administers 4,299 assisted housing units, which is a mixture of social housing units (3,997), affordable housing units (302) and rent supplement and housing allowances (684). Through its Investment in Affordable Housing Program, the Region plans to build 300 assisted housing units by 2014. Wolfson said the units will be a mix of new units and subsidies through new rental assistance programs. "In partnership with Habitat for Humanity Halton, 20 eligible households will receive down payment assistance," he added. "These units are included in the 300 assisted housing units." Its investment in building these units is $1.6 million, according to the Region's 2013 budget, and another $810,000 will help support low-income residents through the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative, which combines five housing and homelessness programs into a single, municipallydelivered program to better address local priorities. The Region's budget also includes an additional 100 child care fee subsidies for lowincome families and additional special needs services for about 20 children. For Resources see p.7