So many of us are close to being homeless
Looking for a reality check? If you lost your source of income tomorrow, how many paycheques could you miss before you had to call on family, friends or a social agency for support?
Is your answer two? For most Canadians, the answer is two.
Two missed paycheques before they are homeless. Before they are contemplating if they can live in their car. Before they’re calling family and friends to ask if they can stay a while. Before they walk through the doors of an emergency shelter.
I’ll give you a minute to allow that to sink in.
It’s startling, after all, that so many of us are that close to being homeless. That so many of us are working as hard as we do and are still, truly, continually at risk of homelessness. If my car, which is 14 years old, broke down, I would have to decide between fixing it and paying my rent — a scenario that is all too common for people who use our emergency shelters.
I work for YWCA Niagara Region, the largest provider of emergency shelter in Niagara, which has two 20-bed shelters for women, one 15-bed shelter for men, six family shelter units, nearly 100 units for various levels of transitional housing, and we serve meals to almost 100 people per day.
If you sat down with me for tea, I could tell you stories of people who came to us following job loss or medical emergencies. Stories of people who are not strangers to hard work, but became homeless due to circumstances beyond their control.
That may leave you feeling a little helpless. What can each of us do to help end poverty and homelessness, particularly when so many are so close to that reality themselves?
What we need more than anything are national housing and mental health strategies; changes to social policy and programming, like a basic income guarantee; employers that can afford to do so paying a living wage; and other proactive measures.
The consequences of poverty in Niagara cost us nearly $1.4 billion per year. Yes, that’s “billion” and it’s “per year.”
You can help us advocate for these changes. You can vote for candidates who will make ending poverty and homelessness a priority. You can shop at businesses that pay their workers a living wage.
While you’re doing those things, you can help with the Band-Aid strategies. You can donate food to your local food bank or emergency shelter. While food banks are typically giving food to families to take home, emergency shelters are typically feeding people who are staying there. Either way, the food is desperately needed. You can donate money to an agency you believe in.
I’ll be frank: food, clothing, and other donations are important and necessary, but cash is king. With cash, your agency of choice can purchase exactly what it needs and, usually, it also has some purchasing power and can get more for its dollar than one of us could alone.
Finally, you can volunteer. Giving your time takes pressures off perpetually underfunded and understaffed agencies and allows them to provide the best possible services to those people who need them.
You can also participate in events such as No Fixed Address, being held Aug.12 and 13, which raises awareness about and funds to fight poverty and homelessness in Niagara. For more information, to register or to volunteer visit www.nfaniagara.com.
Whatever you do, no matter how small an act or donation you think it is, let me assure you that it goes much further than you imagine in helping those who need it most. Laura Ip is resource development co-ordinator at YWCA Niagara Region. She can be reached at lip@ ywcaniagararegion.ca.