Poverty in B.C. adiii

Poverty in B.C. adiii

1. Reconciliation: It's about supporting and trying to create a better relationship with Indigenous communities based on acknowledging their rights and on partnership and respect.

   • Poverty regarding Indigenous people have to do with the long lasting harms caused by colonization, which further led to a system where these communities are still being discriminated and suffering from racism practices.
     • All of these historical scars can still be seen today. Many Indigenous people think that government programs for assistance are still underdeveloped and they fear that they could experience some sort of racism throught the process.
       • Key Groups Affected: Taking a deeper look, we can think about groups inside Indigenous communities that are more vulnerable to enter the cycle of poverty, such as WOMEN, CHILDREN, ELDERLIES, and even those living in remote areas.
         • To combat these issues and help these groups, the B.C. government is trying to promote a better access to education and training for youth by eliminating interest on student loans, and older workers by offering skills training.
           • In addition to that, the province is also trying to promote a social inclusion by investing in new transit systems and buses in communities all over B.C, which is beneficial for people living in areas far from city centers, as this would create an easier accessibility for certain jobs

2. Education and Training: These are extremely important to built up the skills that make someone competent to get a good and rewarding job and make you have an economically stable life.

   • Some vulnerable groups such as people living in remote areas, away from city centers, ends up not having enough opportunities to a quality education and skill training. Without those abilities, it is really hard for people to find a job and therefore, they are more likely to get into the poverty Cycle.
     • Programs in B.C. such as the Skill Training for Employment are proving support for these vulnerable groups, which can include Indigenous workers, survivors of abuse, etc.
   • High costs for international students are also a barrier for accessing quality education.
     • For improving this scenario, the province has eliminated interest on student loans, which can drastically reduce long-term costs for getting an educational degree.
   • Stigma surrounding older workers can sometimes block them from accessing ways to improve their skills and thus, get a good job. This could make them get into poverty.
     • B.C. is offering extra support and training for works older than 55 years through work experience, mentoring, wages subsidies, etc. This could be a good way of reenter the workforce

3. Equity and Inclusion: Promote social support and inclusion, and directing resources for those who are in most need

   • It is really important for people that are struggling with traumas and harmful experiences to have a community to support them. This could be a friend, family, therapy, etc.
     • In the absence of any sort of support, people could seek for alcohol and drugs as a coping mechanism, which could even further emphasize your struggles and lead you to be part of the cycle of poverty.
       • Once you in, social stigma that arise from discrimination against groups because of different social identities, such as race and gender, prevent these people from finding support and basic needs for a healthy life.
         • A way that the province is trying to solve this problem is by embracing gender diversity by adding a non-binary choice in the driver's licence/service cards.
           • Another step they took was to restore the Human Rights Commission, so that all voices across the province can be heard, respected and supported.

4. Affordability: On this context, it means that people can pay for their basic needs and still have some income left for their personal leisure.

   • This is one of the biggest issues in B.C. that leads to people getting into a condition of only being able to pay for their basic needs and mostly nothing else.
     • Inflation around the world significantly increased the price of goods and service in general, specially grocery and rent.
       • This hike in the price of food make it unsustainably hard for low-income earners to access healthy, and nutritious food.
         • The government is at the moment expanding access to the B.C. Market's Nutrition Program so that people cant keep pace with those hikes have healthy food available to them.
       • This leads to people virtually spending almost all their income in sustaining their housing, which makes them unable to take care of other needs, such as medical care, employment, social interactions, better education, etc.;
         • This problem is significantly more profound for those who are unable to get a high paying and rewarding job. This normally is related to systematic stigma and discrimination for certain groups, such as indigenous people, seniors, the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disability.
           • Thus, they become vulnerable and dependent of this low earning job, which makes them stay in a position where they are unable to sustain all of its needs when comparing to the rest of the society, which gets them stuck in the cycle
             • AS a way of solving this issue, the B.C. government cut rent increases and is improving assistance by expanding the eligibility for the Rental Assistance Program. It also increased the average monthly subsidy by approximately $67
               • In addition, the Community Housing Fund is investing almost $2 billion to build around 14K affordable rental homes for low-income earners, seniors, families, etc.
                 • This homes are also located in areas with child care institutions, which helps solving another issue related to child care affordability. (INTERSECTIONALITY!!!)
       • Child care expenses also increased and this restrains its access for people with low incomes or with a certain disability. This problem becomes even worse when we consider communities living in remote areas, where the affordability and availability for this kind of service is often worse.
         • The government has a long-term plan of making child care in B.C. an universal right. Currently, it is supporting lots of prototypes pay $200 for full-time enrolment of their kids. In some areas, it gets close to costing nothing.

5. Health Services: Englobes public services providing medical care.

   • Health care is extremely limited, which increases physical and mental health problems, worsening the ability of people to work and earn an stable income.
     • When you do not treat problems related to your mental health, it can leads to using substances as coping mechanism, which can worsen even more your access to job.
       • Issues regarding accessing jobs leads to poverty!
     • Dental Care is hard to access. However, to reduce the problem, theB.C. Dental Association is improving the availability for quality and more affordable dental services.
     • In B.C., under the Fair PharmaCare program, families are benefiting from no needing to pay for deductibles for prescription medication and are getting 70% drug coverage. This alleviate pressure in households that before would need to spend great part of their inc0me on medical bills.
   • Complex process applications for disability benefits, together with stigma surrounding PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY also make it difficult for them to access health related services.

6. Life Resources: Are extremely important tools that allow people to meet their basic needs.

   • To be able to get some of those services, you need a government issued ID. However, many people across the province do not have one.
     • Also, the time for applying or replace those identifications is significant, and can some times a barrier to access those services.
       • The province is trying to extend the access to ID supplement to disability and income assistance clients, so that they can have access to those life resources such as a B.C. Services card.
   • When looking at the financial system, we can see that banks often take some very predatory attitudes towards consumers.
     • The B.C. Province is currently improving matters such as consumer protection. To do so, they are making borrowers rights stronger, eliminating some fees,, and given them the financial information necessary to make good economical decisions for their lives.
     • Many people living in homeless situation and without lots of knowledge about those services ends up being in disadvantage are are more vulnerable to get into poverty.

7. Other Government Programs and Supports: Are public programs that support people with social and economical issues.

   • The application process for these programs are bureaucratic and hard to navigate. People also complained about not knowing about the existing of them.
     • Certain groups, specifically seniors are experience challenges, as most of those programs are mostly online.
       • The B.C. province is working towards making their services less bureaucratic and more direct so accessibility to these programs gets widely improved.
   • There is a lack of proper assistance for people experience hard times in their lives, which can include people constantly moving homes, youth leaving foster care, people living in abusive environments, are locked into the cycle of poverty due to receiving few support
     • To solve this problem, the government is expanding hardships assistance, so people receive the care they need during unstable times.
       • It is also making it easier to move by removing a limit of housing security deposits people can access.
         • In addition, now in B.C., people without a fixed address still receive the same support as those with a permanent residence

8. Income and Employment Supports: Are programs that provide financial benefits for people earning low incomes/with disabilities

   • These support services are considered of hard accessibility due to complex application process and because many people were already in need of a lot of help when they started applying.
     • These programs also have punitive rules that sometimes make their recipients to fear losing the benefits. For example, disable people that are on assistance, sometimes prefer not to enter in a relationship because that can cause their benefits to be completely removed.
       • Fortunately, The government is currently redefining the concept of "spouse", so that it can better align with benefit programs and make people feel more secure about not losing their assistance.
     • People also complained that the income support is not enough to meet their basic needs regarding food and shelter for example.
       • The government has been increasing the resources for people in income assistance available and are making it easier to access for help.
     • Stigma is always linked with poverty, which makes certain groups such as people of color and indigenous people occasionally being discriminated when applying for assistance

9. Non-Profit Partnerships: Are basically organizations that are funded to provide goods and services based on a certain goal/value. They are normally related to social causes.

   • Impacts caused by the pandemic can still be felt nowadays. People have been experiencing Issues related to substance abuse and poor mental health, and problems related to high market prices across the province
     • This caused a significantly increase in the demand for non-profit organization's services, which they considered a challenge due to the high volume of people in need.
       • This issue made it hard to help the most vulnerable groups (people with mental illness/addiction, people with disabilities, immigrants, etc.) at the same time.
         • It is considerably challenging to try solving each group particularities when you do have a extremely high and diverse demand and scarce funding!
       • Some members of these organizations even started to need help from their programs they used to help with.
       • This increase in demand, together with a lack of funding to support their causes, Is causing those partnerships to experience difficulties to provide their services.
         • Currently, the B.C. government is acting to partially reduce the pressure on those organizations. For example, they are expanding the access to healthy food by increasing funding by $750,000 for that matter.
           • WorkBC is also offering better opportunities for people trying to re-enter the job market, which also reduces pressure on these non-profit partnerships.

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