Thursday, November 6th 2008

By Sarah Levitt

     McMaster University and its surrounding neighborhood is a very isolated community within Hamilton. With grocery stores and affordable housing nearby, and even bars, clothing stores, and coffee shops in the area, there is really no need to leave the university bubble. Sometimes, we as students forget that we are living within the context of a city larger than just our neighborhood.

     According to Poverty in Hamilton, there are over 500 000 Hamiltonians, and the city faces social problems that are reflective of such a large population. Approximately 20 per cent, or 95,000 of this population live below the Low Income Cut-Offs (LICO), a statistic gathered by the McMaster Poverty Initiative. This measure takes into account the average cost of basic necessities (e.g. housing, food, and clothing) depending on the size of the household and the size of the community in which it lives. Added to this calculation is an extra 20 per cent, to cover expenses beyond these basic needs. For example, LICO takes into consideration money spent on heat, hydro, laundry, and healthy care among other expenses. 

     In general, poverty rates are rising in Canada. Approximately 30 per cent or 93,000 households in Toronto are living in poverty. This is a drastic increase from the 16 per cent reported by the Toronto Star in 1990. Furthermore, across Ontario, 19.5 per cent of all families live in poverty. Even if an individual works a 40-hour week, a minimum wage job still leaves him or her below the poverty line. But where does Hamilton fit in among all these numbers?

     Poverty in Hamilton can be broken down into how it affects different social groups. Recent immigrants, for example, experience a 52 per cent poverty rate in their community. There is a 44 per cent poverty rate among aboriginals. Visible minority communities have a 37 per cent poverty rate and 30 per cent of people with disabilities in Hamilton fall below LICO.

     Researchers also use other demographics to measure poverty. In Hamilton, 22,525 children ages 0-14 are impoverished along with 14,180 youth ages 15-24. Approximately half of all single-parent families in Hamilton are considered to live below the poverty line. Poverty Matrix indicated that a third of these parents hold jobs and still do not have enough money. In general, Hamilton has one of the highest poverty rates in all of Ontario.

     There are many factors that affect poverty in Hamilton. The city’s infrastructure grows older with little improvement, the boundaries to the city are constantly expanding, and social services are dictated from sources outside those boundaries. A recent case study indicated that over the last ten years, the richest 40 per cent of Hamiltonians received increasingly larger salaries while the poorer 60 per cent have experienced steadily decreasing incomes.

     Furthermore, Hamilton is a city that is heavily reliant on industry, specifically steel manufacturing. When Hamilton shifted to this industry, people quit high school to work in the mills. However, as stated by the director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, Liz Weaver, graduating high school can change your earnings by 500,000 dollars over the course of your career. Over the past few decades, many of these factories have filed for bankruptcy or simply shut down, meaning that Hamilton’s biggest employers disappeared, which left many out of work. With little other education, it became difficult for these families to regain this income.

     Hamilton also welcomes many immigrants into its community. This demographic has work force potential, but many of their credentials are not recognized by Canadian systems. This situation leads to poverty among the immigrant community because they are unable to find jobs and do not receive adequate help adapting to Hamilton. Poverty Matrix indicated that of the 5,995 immigrant families living under LICO, 1,780 of them receive absolutely no income. Hence, there is a high prevalence of poverty (52 per cent) among this social group.

     Social assistance is a small help to people living under the poverty line, but Weaver noted that people on welfare and other such programs simply do not receive enough money a month. For example, a single parent with two children will get $984 a month in social assistance from the government, but it takes an income of $26,396 dollars a year for a family of that size to meet the LICO cut-off. Thus, there is a discrepancy between what is given and what is necessary to survive. This gap is yet another element in the complex, tangled roots of poverty in Hamilton.

     The Hamilton community has really banded together to fight the issue of poverty in its city. The leader of these initiatives is the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, part of the Hamilton Community Foundation. Weaver explained that children do not live in poverty in isolation; there are many external circumstances that might result in poverty and, though there are some common social determinants, it is not always obvious who is living under LICO. 

     The Roundtable supports the community’s work by providing funding through grants. The group looks at smaller communities within the larger city of Hamilton and asks how it can support them.

     The Roundtable has a poverty reduction strategy that outlines three different tactics through which poverty can be fought. According to the group’s official plan, this included firstly, a “community-level macro strategy, (policy and systems change).” Their second goal involved “critical points of investment strategy (focused on Quality Early Learning and Parenting; Skills Through Education, Activity and Recreation; Targeted Skills Development – post secondary; Employment and Asset Building/Wealth Creation).” Last but not least, the group strives to create “Local strategies and Community Solutions that mobilize local citizens to concentrate their efforts on poverty reduction activities.”

     Ms. Weaver explained that a focus of the Roundtable is to look at good solutions and apply them elsewhere. She said that many organizations address the symptoms of poverty (for example, food banks and homeless shelters) but the Roundtable looks at all these things and asks why they are or are not working and why we are not seeing change.

     So how can McMaster students be a part of the solution? The McMaster Poverty Initiative was formed with “the purpose of developing a comprehensive picture of McMaster’s present role in addressing poverty in Hamilton,” according to its report released in April 2008. This group found that there are students from all faculties participating in poverty-related work.

     Many of these students involved in “direct service volunteer work,” a term that refers to initiatives like literacy programs, homeless outreach, and working with children and youth. The McMaster Poverty Initiative recommends that “university education should produce not simply students, but engaged citizens,” claiming that when students choose McMaster, they are also choosing Hamilton and should become involved in that community.

     Patrick Byrne, a third year Arts and Science student as well as President of Mac SOC and the McMaster Meal Exchange echoed this sentiment. He says that through his volunteer work he “feel[s] more connected to the Hamilton community.” He believed it can be daunting for students to venture out into Hamilton and see people who do not have enough money to satisfy their basic needs, but, upon interacting with these communities, “it is rewarding because you make friendships with people and break down barriers.” 

     Byrne said that through his work he has learned “it is important to provide for the basic needs of people in our community, but we also must examine the root causes of this situation.” This approach is evident in the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction’s strategies for fighting poverty in the city. The group’s report Poverty Reduction must remain a Priority for Hamilton explained that “further analysis is needed to understand the demographic impact of the income information for specific populations in Hamilton.”

     Although it is important to understand, it is also valuable to help, which both the Roundtable and McMaster is doing. Ultimately, the level of poverty in Hamilton is saddening, but it is encouraging to see people engaging in programs that help.

Tags: Hamilton Round-Table for Poverty Reduction, initiatives, Low Income Cut-Offs, poverty