Rising costs, stagnant incomes put the squeeze on Niagara residents
It’s getting harder and harder for lower-income residents to make ends meet
Teresa Sacco wonders what she would do if she didn’t have her sister.
“A half-decent place is $1,500 a month, and nobody on disability can afford that,” Sacco said. “I’m living in my sister Sharon’s house, which was my parents’ before they passed. She has never really left, and she helped my parents, so we all agreed she should stay there.”
Sacco, who is in her late 50s, is on the Ontario Disability Support Program after a pair of car crashes left her with debilitating injuries. She had settlements from insurance companies, but after lawyers took their cut and the bills were paid, there wasn’t much left over. She said she is getting about $1,400 a month from the provincial government.
“My neck is still a bad shape,” Sacco said. “My doctor said if one of the bones slips, or if I break my neck again, I’m done. I’ll never be able to walk again, and I’ll be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.
“My fingers are numb, and so are my toes sometimes. I feel like I’m taking my life into my own hands in the winter when I walk down an icy sidewalk. I don’t want to think of what would happen if I slip. I’d never be the same.
“Not working is killing. I saw there is a job at a nursing home not far from here. That would be perfect. It’s what I do. I could be in management. There is no way my doctor would think that’s a good idea. I am still facing two more surgeries.”
In Niagara, affordable housing is at a premium, and wages are stagnant while the prices of gas, groceries and housing continue to rise.
A modest one-bedroom apartment in Welland costs $1,400 a month. A basement one-bedroom apartment in Port Colborne is $1,300. In St. Catharines, where Sacco lives off Pelham Road, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,450, a 12 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
For homeowners it’s a similar situation. The average price in Niagara was $450,000 in March 2020. By March 2021, the price of the same home was more than $620,000, an increase of 37.2 per cent, according to Niagara Workforce Planning Board.
‘‘ A half-decent place is $1,500 a month, and nobody on disability can afford that.
TERESA SACCO
“I am living in a big house, and I am renting a room from my sister, but the hydro is going up, the water is going up, everything is going up, so I’m giving (my sister) $600 a month for the room, plus whatever groceries I can throw in, but that’s not enough, Sacco said.
“I’ve been on $1,400 a month for a long time. I don’t have any more money to give her, and I don’t think that is right. Everything’s going up.
“I talked to my social worker, and she said there was nothing they could do.
“I got hurt in an accident, and I fought my way through that.”
Seven family members, six of whom are adults — three sisters, a brother, a brother-in-law and two kids — are living together. They are a tight family, but that’s still a lot people under one roof. Sacco said her sister and her brother-in-law work hard and would like their own place but can’t afford a decent one to raise their daughter.
“I have to believe there are people across Niagara who feel the same,” Sacco said. “We are reaching a crisis point here. Unless you’re rich, I think there are a lot of people who are not sleeping very well these days through no fault of their own.
“Our family banded together, but how many people can do that? We need more housing for low-income people. We need housing for people in the middle class because they can’t afford to buy a home at these prices. It’s outrageous.”
Sacco’s sister, Mary Dewein, is working in a bakery in a local grocery store. She’s educated and is trained to work in the food industry or pharmaceutical plants, but she can’t find that kind of job here in Niagara.
“I could move to Toronto for a job, but I don’t know if I would be further ahead,” Dewein said. “It’s even more expensive there.
“We pull together, and we make the best of it, but the more people you have in the house, the more the water costs, the more the hydro costs, the more everything costs. The bills never stop. They just don’t.
“You find yourself cutting back on everything. I’m jealous of these people who can just go on vacation and do all this stuff. How are they doing this? I don’t know. I really don’t know. Let’s put it this way. It feels like an elastic band, and you keep stretching and stretching and stretching it, and if it keeps going, it’s going to snap.
“I don’t know what Teresa would do. She can’t be on her own. Thank God my sister Sharon has the house. We’ve filled it, and we’re trying our best because there are four families here, but even working together, it is difficult.”
The parties running in the provincial election have platforms that address the issues.
Niagara Centre NDP MPP Jeff Burch said workers full time at a grocery store or in the service sector take home about $1,800 a month. The median income in Niagara is just $35,000 a year. That means the average worker takes home about $2,300 a month.
“So we’re asking people to spend 60 per cent of their take-home income on a one-bedroom apartment,” Burch said.
He said conditions are pushing the working poor into a position where, like people on assistance, they have to choose between putting food on the table and paying the rent.
“Not a day goes by when I’m not talking to somebody about housing,” Burch said. “All this revolves around housing and the increase in the cost of living. The wages are too low, and the ODSP and OW (Ontario Works) rates are too low, but what’s pushing this is the incredibly huge crisis we have with affordable housing.
“The Conservative government isn’t helping. The ODSP and OW rates were supposed to go up by three per cent in 2018, and they cut that, and then they only raised it by 1.5 per cent and then haven’t raised them since.
“The rates were already too low for people like Teresa. Now the situation is worse as inflation increases. It gets to the point where the people are on the verge of being homeless. Even though the minimum wage has gone up, it was frozen for 10 years under the Liberals, and the Conservatives didn’t do much, so we’re so far behind, and it’s not a living wage.”
Ryan Madill, a firefighter and union executive, is running for the Liberals in St. Catharines.
He said his party is framing its policies to focus on affordability.
“The cost of living has just gone up so much faster than the ability to increase your income,” Madill said. “In Teresa’s situation, ODSP hasn’t increased since 2018 when a Liberal government was in power. It’s been frozen for all four years under the (Doug) Ford government, and you are going to see an announcement from us about ODSP soon.
“For renters, we know that the cost has gone up exponentially in the last several years — and that’s directly connected to some of the changes that Ford made immediately when he got into power.
“He lifted rent controls on new builds and new units so when tenants change, the landlord can set the new rent anywhere they want, and that has driven up rents tremendously.
“The cost of housing is going through the roof, too. We have our full policy platform coming out Monday, and it will be fully costed. Stephen Del Duca and the Liberals believe that increasing housing supply, protecting renters and building affordable housing are key to creating a housing market that works for everyone.”
Madill said the Liberals have announced a plan to slash transit fares to $1 per ride and make monthly passes $40 until January 2024. The party has also promised to remove the provincial portion of the HST on all prepared food costing less than $20 and will add after-school care to complement the federal government’s promise of $10-a-day childcare for children aged five and younger.
Bob Gale, a regional councillor, is running for the Progressive Conservatives in Niagara Falls.
“We are working across the government to make sure our most vulnerable have the supports they need,” Gale said. “I am hearing over and over again that the cost of living is a major concern for people, and that is why we are committed to keeping costs down. I have always said that your money is better in your pocket than any government’s.”
In an emailed statement with more detail, Gale said the Ontario government has raised social assistance rates by 1.5 per cent and invested more than $1 billion in social services relief funding to ensure that the most vulnerable people have support during the pandemic. In total, more than $8.3 billion in social assistance payments were issued in 2020 and 2021.
The statement said the Tories are also looking forward to the federal government delivering on its campaign commitment to create the Canada Disability Benefit to increase support for people receiving ODSP payments, the statement said.
The Green Party has several planks in its platform to address the issue, including expanding zoning to increase the housing supply and implementing vacancy and rental controls on all units.
The party also promises to cut transit fares by 50 per cent for three months and launch a green retrofit program while freezing urban boundaries and implementing a grocery code of conduct designed to protect farmers.
‘‘ It feels like an elastic band, and you keep stretching and stretching and stretching it, and if it keeps going, it’s going to snap.
MARY DEWEIN