Children of single parents most at risk of poverty: report
Combination of high rents, child-care costs cut deeply into family income
If we gathered together all the children in this province who live in poverty, they would be B.C.’s fifthlargest city with a population of 153,300.
That city would be disproportionately populated with First Nations kids, visible minorities, recent immigrants and especially children of single parents, according to a newly released report card by the First Call B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition.
Add to that, the astronomical rents in Metro Vancouver mean that being poor here is far worse than being poor in other parts of Canada, said Adrienne Montani, First Call’s provincial co-ordinator.
“It costs so much to live here, you have far less money left over after shelter,” she said.
“When families scrimp, they scrimp on food or they don’t heat their homes, because you can’t scrimp on rent.”
The rent crisis is a ticking time bomb for child homelessness, she said. The most recent Metro homeless count found 117 children with parents, but that is likely a massive underestimate.
“When you have kids, your top priority is to stay off the street, so they aren’t apprehended (by the ministry),” she said. “So they are couch-surfing and that makes them invisible.”
The poverty rate for children in lone-parent families is nearly 50 per cent, compared with just 11 per cent for kids raised by couples.
“For many lone mothers, the difficulty of finding affordable child care — so they can sustain employment — is one of the most common obstacles that leaves them raising their children in poverty,” the report said.
First Nations grandmother Gloria Bonner had to conceal her two grandsons’ special needs just to find child-care space or risk having them at home for years while they were on waiting lists.
She is raising her daughter’s sons — one with mild autism and the other with fetal-alcohol syndrome — and battles to bring enough food into the house.
“Both the boys are growing fast, and when you are trying to manage the groceries — we do a lot of rationing,” she said in a vignette from the report. “They might want more, but we have to save it to have some for later, too.”
When she can’t afford the fare, they dodge security on transit to get to the community centre, go swimming or to the doctor.
Progress is being made — the number of B.C. children living in poverty has declined for six consecutive years — but it’s agonizingly slow.
“At this rate of child-poverty decrease (an average of 4,528 fewer poor children each year from 2000-2015), it would take until 2049, or 34 years, to eliminate child poverty in B.C.,” according to the report.
The report notes that the income gap between rich and poor has widened in B.C. The median after-tax income of couples with children in B.C. is more than $91,000, compared with just $17,710 for poor, single-parent families.
Since taking power in June, Premier John Horgan has overhauled cabinet to include poverty reduction as a mandate of the Ministry of Social Development and installed Shane Simpson as minister. In July, the government announced a $100-a-month increase in income assistance and disability assistance, the first increase in 10 years.
Simpson is currently seeking public feedback to inform B.C.’s Poverty Reduction Strategy and in October appointed a 27-member poverty-reduction advisory forum.
“Reducing poverty is not just about giving people money, it’s about creating opportunities,” Simpson said at the time. “Higherearnings exemptions offer people a chance to increase their household income, remain connected to the workforce and build the valuable work experience that can lead to a good-paying job.”
Last year’s overhaul of the federal government’s Canada Child Benefit has increased the monthly stipend paid to parents, especially families with children under six years old.
“It’s so new that it’s not clear yet whether they have lifted anyone out of poverty,” said Montani. “But it has helped and we’d like to see B.C. follow suit.”
Among the report’s 21 recommendations is a call to immediately double the B.C. Early Childhood Tax Benefit to $1,320 per child per year.
It costs so much to live here, you have far less money left over after shelter.