- by Lesley Hallett and Jennifer Meloche

My friend and I need help and ideas. We know that within our circle of friends and the greater community, we have thoughtful and hardworking creative thinkers, social workers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, frontline workers, farmers and an assortment of skilled labourers. Although we both are fortunate enough to not be living in poverty, we are emotionally exhausted fighting the vicious cycle of unjustified and unexplainable endless dead ends that exist daily in the lives of too many people we know, care about, and love.

We’ve volunteered on mission trips and supplied a short term Bandaid approach to the unbalanced distribution of natural and manmade resources within foreign countries. Although we understood our time-limited commitment there, we were so impressed by our new acquaintances’ ability to remain genuinely kind, generous and undefeated despite their daily experience with extreme poverty. While there, and for many weeks and months after, our hearts ached due to our limitations to make a permanent change. They were thousands of kilometres away in a country we had no voice in. We had done what we could do at that time.

Through our profession and then beginning in 2016, our close involvement with an Eritrean refugee family of 5, we have had the experience of working more intimately within Canada’s social system. Unfortunately, we have become extremely disheartened and - unlike the mission experience - can’t stop seeing the inequality and the continual dead ends that exacerbate the cycle of poverty.

For clarity and simplicity, we are sharing general facts, yet specific dialogues and photos from a family living in the Kitchener Waterloo area. Their identity is irrelevant as they are merely one family of thousands there who likely share the same story as millions throughout Canada.

Taking into account Ontario Works, Canada and Ontario Child Benefits, this single-parent family of 2 children and 2 adult children receives approximately $24000/year. The average rent for a 3 bedroom townhouse in the KW area is $1800/mo plus approximately $200 in utilities. This means that 100% of their income is required for housing. While subsidized housing exists, there is presently an illogical and unjustified 5 to 7 year waiting list to get on it.

Assuming that landlords are capable of simple math, there should be no surprise that many tenants will be unable to keep up with their rent payments. This indirectly and sadly allows too many landlords to neglect repairs on their already unkempt buildings, leaving tenants in a constant state of stress. Landlords and tenants begin to show little pride in ownership and tenants have no financial way to change their living circumstances. Saving is a mathematical impossibility. Groceries are accessed through food banks, and other charity organizations or schools aim to provide a percentage of the remaining necessities.

It is extremely unjust.

We’ve chosen to share some insight and a descriptive tour of this particular $1800/month, 3 bedroom, questionable 2 bathroom townhouse in Waterloo.

The exterior front of the townhouse is tired looking. Rotting door and window trims with missing and/or ripped screens, outdated, energy inefficient windows, and depending on the property, limited grassed areas create limited curb appeal. The small fenced backyard is mainly filled with dirt, stone and a small, dilapidated square ‘deck’ area. Fencing unexpectedly removed without notice in one corner home allows public access to this family’s home, and restricts their young children’s ability to play.

The interior cries out questionably low safety standards. The scarcely finished, open ceiling basement is dark as basic ceiling light bulbs are missing pull cords. The electrical fuse box is very outdated, and an outlet appears to have been severely damaged. A small puddle sits below a water heater that only worked for one week. A knobless washer permanently set to an unmarked location, and a dryer that can only be adjusted with pliers and spins without heat sits across from a single toilet in the laundry room. These appliances were apparently left behind by a previous tenant and not removed before their August 1 tenancy. Hanging above the laundry tub is a very old, possibly unnecessary sediment water filtration system with an ancient filter desperately in need of replacing.

The small kitchen contains a working stove and an older, handleless fridge with a missing interior freezer flap that causes frozen foods to thaw and water to leak on all fridge items below as it defrosts. Over 3 days, the landlord continually changed this fridge story. Initially stating the “previous tenants must have broken the handle off [and] they don’t need or use a handle”, to after viewing it, denying his culpability because “he didn’t buy that fridge; he doesn’t buy GE”, to finally, “they must have brought it with them; it’s a full freezer.” After leaving their apartment, he informed us that he doesn’t “supply any appliances but can “transfer ownership” of the broken appliances left in the home to them. Apparently, if they wanted working appliances, they would have to purchase their own.

The shared outdoor living spaces are disgusting. There are insufficient garbage and recycle receptacles, and dump runs are clearly infrequent. Discarded mattresses and furniture sit out for months in various weather conditions. Larger items and bags of garbage opened by animals litter the entrance to the shared parking lot. The lacking collective pride of ownership is matched by the derelict property maintained by the Property Manager. There is little motivation to improve tenants’ living conditions when neither owner nor property manager cares for its people or buildings.

Upon leaving the property last week, my friend and I realized that there were, eerily, way too many similarities there to the Nicaraguan barrios we had visited. The small improvements we managed to get for our friends last week took hours of redirected phone calls from agency to agency. Although we were regularly greeted by friendly and empathetic employees, most were limited in the capacity they could help, especially when speaking to someone other than the official tenant. We did greatly appreciate the City of Waterloo’s support for visiting their home, fixing their water heater and ordering their landlord to provide basic appliances. Sadly, there are a multitude of neighbours living in similar conditions without any advocacy.

What did we promise our new Canadians and what are we offering our native ones?

Too many Canadians spend their lives never knowing the feeling of having enough money to provide for themselves and/or families. There is no way to get ahead; they are even punished financially for not having enough.

Despite the provincial programs available to assist lower-income utility customers, such as the Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP), there continues to be a legally acceptable billing procedure that seems questionable given the circumstances.

While perhaps logical on paper to protect the revenue required to provide utility services, it seems backwards to expect an already struggling family to incur the costs of several months’ worth of utilities if they are unable to pay their regular amount throughout the year.

For the billing period of August 1 - 10, although their electricity consumption, delivery and set up charges totalled $49.29, they were billed $459.29. Hydro is apparently legally allowed to add a deposit charge of $410, quite unfairly in the same month that double rent is required.

We want to believe that Canada is a lot different from Nicaragua. Admittedly we acknowledge that in Canada, provided you can read and write, publicly funded resources and support programs are available for low-income families who can locate and access them. What we are struggling with is the cyclical nature and growth of poverty in our communities. At its very best, we too are applying a ‘Bandaid’ approach.

Arun Gandhi’s words ring true. “The Earth can only produce enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed. Our greed and wasteful habits perpetuate poverty, which is violence against humanity.” We strongly believe that the Earth is sending a very clear message in 2020; we need to unite and take care of each other.

We understand that it’s easier to assign labels and stereotypes to justify the life we feel was earned without privilege. It just isn’t true. We are not content knowing that schools need to be open for our community’s children to access their basic needs. We know there are enough kind and brilliant thinkers within every community who are willing to unite to find a lasting way to end poverty.

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." - unknown