A regional assessment has determined at least 15 per cent of people in the Comox Valley Regional District live in poverty.
A Regional Poverty Reduction Assessment and Strategy attempts to define key changes needed to reduce poverty in the CVRD by 25 per cent by 2024. It proposes to focus on root causes to enable actions required to eliminate rather than alleviate poverty.
Building on the 2020 Regional Housing Needs Assessment and the 2019 Comox Valley Childcare Action Plan, coupled with insights from community partners, a project team identified seven focus areas:
•Families, children and youth (ex, affordable childcare);
• Housing (non-market);
• Social supports;
• Livable incomes (Universal Basic Income; Living Wage recognized and upheld by employers);
• Food security;
• Affordable, accessible transportation;
• Social inclusion.
In a presentation to the CVRD board Oct. 5, Jen Casorso of Urban Matters said individuals who experience poverty face daily tradeoffs and hard choices.
“The cost of housing leaves little money left for food and other basic needs, so people must choose between suitable housing and their other needs,” Casorso said.
As an example, families need employment to pay for childcare. In turn, a large part of income might have to be spent on transportation to access employment or education.
Casorso added that reducing poverty in the region requires community-wide collaboration among stakeholders, and among those with lived experience.
Area C director Edwin Grieve said the region has been “skating around the issue” for many years.
“The devil’s in the details,” he said, noting all parties in the recent federal election vowed to create more housing and to lower the cost of food. “Are you going to pay the farmers less? Who is going to build the 1.2 million new units that government’s talking about? It’s all well and fine but it’s a zero sum game. There’s pluses and minuses. I know business owners that have just about gone bankrupt. In one instance, one of my relatives had to sell her house in order to keep her business going. These are tough times.”
What resonates with Grieve is the Housing First approach that aims to provide stable housing to those experiencing homelessness.
“I’ve always maintained that wages are secondary to housing,” Grieve said.
Casorso noted that progress has been made when it comes to investments, at a provincial and federal level. For instance, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is looking at initiatives such as rent-to-own models.
Courtenay Coun. Doug Hillian said poverty costs everyone in terms of holding back social and economic development.
“We have an opportunity to look at how we operate,” he said.
The Regional Poverty Reduction Assessment and Strategy is in the draft phase. The board directed staff to report back to project participants to explore implementation options for the strategy.
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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