17 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,M ay 19,2022 insidehalton.com Join Us! The Healing Journey Towards Mini-Bimaadiziwin (The Good Life) May 24th, 2022 at Country Heritage Park, Milton 9:00AM - 4:00AM *Build a better understanding of how to connect to the land through Indigenous practices and values. *Join local Indigenous Community members and Influential Knowledge Keepers as Halton continues its journey together in reconciliation. All are welcome to join the journey in this One-Day event with Dennis Windego For more info & to register visit: grandmothersvoice.com/healingjourney The Ontario election is underway, the stock market is crashing, COVID policies have abated -- if not COVID itself -- and Ontario, Cana- da and the rest of the world is facing a housing crisis. Ukraine is under attack, Yemen continues to be per- secuted and Israel and Gaza are still lobbing missiles at each other. The world is facing a cri- sis, humanity is under con- stant pressure and no time in history has it been more important to work together to try to alleviate some of the big issues. Housing and income are two of those big issues. Ev- eryone needs safe housing as a basic right, and suffi- cient income to sustain it. Housing affordability has rocketed out of reach for so many in just the past five years. Not only is owning a home now impossible for many people, but renting something on your own is also now out of reach for a large number of people, in- cluding seniors, young adults and students fresh out of college. If you are a low income wage earner, if you are not already living somewhere with a reasonable rent or if you lose your housing in the increasing number of "re- novictions," your family can quickly fall into our al- ready very vulnerable so- cial safety net, which itself is in crisis and unable to keep up with the never end- ing requests for help. Now bring in an interna- tional perspective. Imagine coming from a war-torn country, not speaking En- glish, and receiving 90 days of basic income support. You need to start work- ing immediately to support yourself and your family. You had a good job at home, but with no English and no understanding of the Cana- dian job market, you'll be lucky to get what is called a "survival job" by newcom- ers -- likely manual labour and shift work in a factory or warehouse. Not to mention that to get that job you are going to need someone to watch your kids. You've left family behind, probably your hus- band and your brothers as they have been conscripted to fight, and you pray for their safety every minute of every day. You are living with a dis- tant cousin who you have never met before and your two families are on top of each other, suffocating in a house made for one. This is the current story of the Ukrainians arriving in Canada. The provincial govern- ment is in theory responsi- ble for housing, employ- ment and income, some of which was downloaded to the regions and municipal- ities. The federal government has recently flirted with the idea of basic income, but for whatever reason it didn't happen -- much to the sor- row of the social services and low income families across Canada. And despite there being provincial and federal housing investment strate- gies in place, the programs to access the money are -- in my opinion -- so complex and convoluted that getting a project underway takes major assets before you can even start those discus- sions. In the coming provincial election, please ask your lo- cal candidates: "How are you going to work together with other levels of govern- ment to successfully move us forward on income and housing security given these are provincial man- dates?" Big problems can be solved only by working to- gether, and that is the com- mitment we need from all levels of our politicians. Kim Jenkinson is the executive director of the Halton Multicultural Coun- cil. She can be reached at kjenkinson@hmcconnec- tions.com. HOUSING AND INCOME CRISIS AT CRITICAL JUNCTURE OPINION THESE MUST BE TOP PRIORITIES FOR THIS ELECTION, WRITES KIM JENKINSON "Not only is owning a home now impossible for many people, but renting something on your own is also now out of reach for a large number of people." KIM JENKINSON Column