Shift Happens and Four Other Good Ideas to Tackle Inequality

(Here is a story I wrote that originally appeared at www.hamiltonjustice.ca)

From time to time, we do book reviews.


Well, on reflection, we’ve only done one that we can remember (http://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/blog/?post=Briefs+on+Books+%231&id=151).


Today we thought we’d do something similar.  Recently, we attended a Maytree Foundation Lunch and Learn Workshop.  We participated in the live stream.  Therefore, this will be a Lunch and Learn Workshop Live Stream Review. We have no illusions that we are the first to attempt this.


Armine Yalnizyan was the speaker at this workshop.


Armine is a senior Economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
You’ve probably seen her on TV or heard her on Tuesdays and Thursdays on CBC Radio One’s Metro Morning.


Her presentation dealt with Income Inequality. We won’t get into the details.
 
You’ll know that inequality in incomes and wealth is increasing in this country. It is often referred to as the Growing Gap.


There has been a real change in recent years.  It used to be that inequality came from recessions and the bottom falling out of the economy.  Now, according to Ms. Yalnizyan, “in good times and bad times the rich get richer.”


So what to do?  Here are some snippets from her five good ideas.


Don’t Make Things Worse


Axe some of those bad ideas.  The Temporary Foreign Workers Program is one that needs to return to its original purpose.Income splitting - “inequality by policy design” is another.  Similarly, those Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) don’t benefit those they were designed to help. We need to stop allowing the demonization of unionized workers and halt the weakening of employment laws as well.


Boost Economy from the Bottom Up


Why not boost the economy from the bottom up?  Raising the minimum wage isn’t just a poverty reduction strategy.  It is good for the bottom line of business.  Better wages raise productivity, increase investment and employee retention.   There are other methods such as increasing the GST credit that can also be implemented which will help those with the lowest incomes.


Tax is not a four Letter Word


Armine Yalnizyan takes this notion from the book by Alex Himelfarb (http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/himelfarb.shtml).   There is lot that can be done with taxes that would help.   For example, raising the rate on incomes over $250,000 to 35% (from 29%) generates 2.5 billion dollars.  A financial transaction tax, call it an ATM fee for corporations, could net $4 billion. What could $4 billion get you?  A national pharmacare program or a $10 a day childcare program or a 50% reduction of the number of poor seniors in the country.  Take your pick.


Support the Sagging Middle Class


Many things can be done to help the middle class that will help those at the bottom as well.Ms. Yalnizyan talked about how Canada continues to bring more people into a country that is without a housing plan.  We have a housing crisis in regards to affordability but also in the amount of housing. Expanded rental stock and better development codes are imperative.


Shift Happens


Ms.  Yalnizyan emphasized the power of journalism; how writers can “shed a little light on (inequalities) and get a bit of shirking away from bad behaviours.”One example of this kind of writing is Hugh Mackenzie’s annual review of CEO’s salaries. (https://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/canada%E2%80%99s-ceos-ring-new-year-bang)


Citing the activism of fast food workers in the U.S.A. that is resulting in higher minimum wages, Ms. Yalnizyan challenges us to get involved and make shift happen.You can listen to the presentation at http://maytree.com/fgi/five-good-ideas-tackle-inequality.html

Hamilton Declared a Sanctuary City

(Here is an update on last month's Sanctuary City Story.  It was originally published on http://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/ where you can find more information on the Sanctuary City movement.)

The City of Hamilton has become the second Canadian municipality to declare itself a Sanctuary City. Hamiltonians cheered Wednesday night as City Council voted unanimously to ensure that municipal and municipally-funded services are accessible to Hamiltonians without full immigration status documents.

"This is the beginning of treating people equally, no matter what their immigration status is. Today is a first step on a long journey. It’s a commitment not just by City Hall but by service providers and Hamiltonians at large to work together to ensure justice for our undocumented neighbours,” noted Maria Antelo, Community Development Coordinator with the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic. 

The move to make Hamilton a Sanctuary City has been spearheaded by the Hamilton Sanctuary City Coalition (HSCC) of which Antelo is a member. HSCC was formed in June 2013 with support from Toronto’s Solidarity City Network.  (Toronto became Canada’s first Sanctuary City last February.)

Some History

In June 2013, in response to requests by members of the community, Hamilton City Council directed staff to engage with local agencies.  The goal was to investigate how undocumented individuals are treated in Hamilton.  A report was forwarded to the Emergency and Community Services Committee. 

The City of Hamilton subsequently partnered with the HSCC to document the experiences of those living with precarious status in Hamilton.

 

The HSCC research and consultation found that: 

·         access to health care and police services remain the primary concern of those with precarious status.

·         fear of detection, detention and deportation is a major obstacle preventing many from obtaining services to which they would otherwise have access.

·         precarious status disproportionately affects women. Women are vulnerable because they often come to Canada using temporary visas and family sponsorships.

·         women with precarious status are often vulnerable to domestic violence and exploitation. 

·         children are the most severely impacted by precarious status.  This status restricts their access to the nutritious food, recreational programs, and daycare activities that are necessary for a healthy development.

Looking Ahead

Council’s decision means that the City of Hamilton will revise its anti­racism training.  Soon all staff will be aware of and support the City’s commitment to serve Hamiltonians living with precarious or undocumented immigration status.   Hamiltonians will become aware of their rights under the new policies. 

Caitlin Craven from the Hamilton Sanctuary City Coalition expressed her delight with the outcome:
“Today Hamilton has begun the process of becoming a Sanctuary City. Access without Fear means that all residents of the City would be able to access city services without fear of deportation or detention.”

In the future people accessing city services will not require any immigration status documentation. If that documentation is necessary for providing the service it would not be disclosed to federal immigration agencies.

The Coalition must be commended for its advocacy work.  Hamilton now joins a growing movement of municipalities rallying to put the interests of their community ahead of those of federal immigration policymakers and enforcers.

The Hamilton Sanctuary City Coalition is a made up of individuals and community organizations. Agencies supporting the initiative include the  Hamilton Community Legal Clinic (HCLC), Sexual Assault Centre Hamilton and Area (SACHA), Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI), Immigrant Women’s Centre (IWC), Hamilton Safe Communities Coalition (HSCC), Good Shepherd, Micah House, Neighbour 2 Neighbour Centre (N2N), The Well, LGBTQ Wellness Centre of Hamilton, the Ecumenical Support Committee for Refugees, Community Information Hamilton, the Canadian African Multicultural Association, Refuge Hamilton Centre for Newcomer Health, the Neighbor to Neighbor Centre, and Anti Racists and Allies of Hamilton.

 

 

 

Sanctuary City

(This story originally appeared in North End Breezes.)

In November, the Hamilton Sanctuary City Coalition hosted a community forum. This coalition came together following a community presentation at the Hamilton Public Library last spring.

The group is building momentum to make Hamilton a “sanctuary city."

That is a place where all residents, regardless of immigration status, can access services without fear of reprisal or oppression, detention or deportation. The coalition aims to expose common myths and to educate our city about the harsh realities and barriers faced by residents who do not have full status.

Developing a recognition that all people have the right to freedom of mobility is another goal of the coalition.

Community forum keynote speaker Pablo Godoy addressed an enthusiastic gathering of more than 50 community members and agency staff at the Dr. John Perkins Centre, setting the tone for the day.

Godoy is the national representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). He challenged the group to work for “a city that actually allows access [to services] without fear.”

That is, in fact, an overall goal of the coalition: to make Hamilton a city where all human rights are respected and valued and no one is turned away when requesting service. Godoy drew on his personal experiences coming to Canada as a refugee from Guatemala and his professional experience interacting with workers in various government programs.

Godoy decried the idea that people can be called illegal.

“The actions of those corporations that displace thousands, if not millions of people from their homelands and push them out of their homelands—these actions are beyond illegal, but people cannot be illegal.”

Many people have difficulty or are unable to access basic services in Canada.

The Hamilton Sanctuary City Coalition continues its work in solidarity with numerous community groups to ensure that the necessary policies are put in place to make Hamilton the best place to live, work and play for all people.

To find out more or to get involved, contact Maria Antelo at the clinic at 905-527-4572.

(Hamilton City Council Emergency and Community Services Committee will be looking at this issue on February 10th.)

Rupert Hotel Fire and Canada's Hidden Emergency

(This story originally appeared at www.hamiltonjustice.ca)

Last Monday December 23rd was the 24th anniversary of the Rupert Hotel fire that killed nine men and one woman in Toronto.

In 1989 the Rupert was overcrowded and badly maintained.  The tragedy served as a wake up call and for a time new safer accommodation was designed and built.

For those of us who are involved with individuals and families forced to live in rooming houses or other inadequate housing, the anniversary is a time to reflect on whether things have improved.



Rupert Hotel, Toronto 1980
Photo from flickr collations photostream

In that spirit, I’ve been reading results of a multi-city study that looks at health impacts on people living in this housing.

The study is called Housing Vulnerability and Health: Canada’s Hidden Emergency.

It was put together by the Research Alliance for Canadian Homelessness and Health (REACH).  The research was based on the health and housing status of 1,200 vulnerably housed and homeless single adults in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa.

First, some definitions.

Homeless, for the purposes of this study, referred to someone “living in a shelter, on the street, or in other places not intended for human habitation.”   Couch surfers also were considered to be homeless.

Who are the “vulnerably housed?”

The authors used this definition to describe an individual who had their own place but at some point in the previous year had been homeless or had moved at least twice.

Surprisingly, perhaps, the study found that there were really no differences in the health of those people who were homeless and those who were vulnerably housed.

Both groups had serious physical health problems.  We are talking about significant chronic health conditions here.  Rates of 33% for arthritis, 30% for Hepatitis B and C, 18% with high blood pressure and so on.

More than half of those surveyed reported a past diagnosis of a mental health problem. Sixty-one percent had had a traumatic brain injury at some point.

Individuals surveyed had problems accessing the health care they needed for various reasons.

In the year prior to the survey, more than half had visited an emergency department and a quarter of those surveyed had been hospitalized for at least one night. (That figure does not include emergency room stays.)

Thirty eight percent (38%) had been beaten up or attacked in that past year.

Getting adequate and sufficient food was an issue.

An earlier study that examined the deaths of 15,000 people living in such housing had some shocking results.  For example, average life span of these 15,000 was “7-10 years shorter than the life span of the general Canadian population.”  Women had about the same chance of living to the age of 75 as an average women in Guatemala, a country where many lack access to basic health care.

The takeaway from the Housing Vulnerability and Health research is this:  On any given night in Canada for every one person sleeping in a shelter, there are 23 more people living with housing vulnerability.  It is indeed “Canada’s Hidden Emergency.”

Hamilton’s Recent History

More than a decade ago, a number of housing advocates and workers, led by outreach worker Suzanne Swanton, put together a film. The film documented the situations of people living in rooming houses in Hamilton.  We had hoped the movie would spur change, would help people understand not only what a rooming house is but also what the conditions are like in rooming houses.
For example, over the years the legislation has changed so that most residents in rooming houses are considered to be tenants and have rights and responsibilities of tenants.  (See a blog piece from earlier this year for more on this including comment from Mike Ollier, the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic’s Director of Legal Services. http://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/blog/?post=Tenant+Safety+Must+be+a+Priority&id=237)

Beginning in the nineties this kind of housing had become the only real option for many Hamilton residents with low incomes. Our experience was that while some of this housing wasn’t bad the conditions in most were deplorable.

Our film didn’t really look at the kind of health issues portrayed in the REACH survey. That research suggests that nearly nine thousand households (8,755) in Hamilton experience housing vulnerability.  (This figure is from 2006 data and includes all households not just one person ones.)

What’s Next?

The fact that the City of Hamilton is finally moving to proactive enforcement of zoning and licensing regulations is a positive step.

However, these actions don’t really address, and shouldn’t be expected to address, health issues.  The solutions, though, are well known and outlined in the research paper.

We need housing that is of good quality and affordable.  Some people could use on site services (supportive housing) or service provider visitations (supported housing).  Ideally, single dwelling units with their own kitchen and bathrooms will become more available.

In Hamilton, we take great pride in striving to make the City the best place to raise a child. In that context, the situations of single unattached individuals often are forgotten.
 
A story written four years ago for Raise the Hammer provides more history on rooming houses in Hamilton and the Rupert Fire. (http://raisethehammer.org/article/993/20_years_later_roomers_and_boarders_still_vulnerable)

The REACH paper can be found at http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/crich/wp-content/uploads/housing-vulnerability-and-health.pdf

Make the Transitional Funding Permanent

Here is a story I wrote that appeared December 3rd at www.hamiltonjustice.ca.  As far as I know nothing has been heard from the province yet. 

Over a year ago, the City of Hamilton and other municipalities were struggling to figure out how they would address a problem caused by the provincial government.

That problem was the cancellation of the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit program (CSUMB).  This benefit had been available to people on Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) to cover costs like last month’s rent, rent and utility arrears and other housing related expenses.

In 2012, the province passed on only half of the funds to cities for a new program called the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative. 
You may remember a public outcry followed. Then, at the 11th hour, the province provided transitional funding to cities to cover the gap.   (We wrote about it at the time http://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/blog/?post=Transitional%20Funding%20from%20Province&id=210)

However, that transitional funding runs out on March 31, 2014.

What will fill the gap?

Recently a letter was sent  to the government by a number of organizations urging that the $42 million be made a permanent part of the CHPI fund.  A decision to do this needs to happen soon as municipalities are in the final stages of planning their budgets for next year.

While many municipalities like Hamilton created their own local programs to address the gap, some, unfortunately, did not.  But all municipalities need more funds to meet the need in their communities.

We are writing to political leaders to ask them to reinstate the program.  We hope you will too.
You can read the letter the community organizations sent on the Clinic's Fast Facts page at http://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/did-you-know.cfm

The letter and more background information is also available at http://www.incomesecurity.org/Make42millionpermanent.htm

Tenant Votes Matter

  Here is a story that I did (slightly edited) that appeared in a recent edition of Sherman Hub News.

Hamilton Community Legal Clinic/Clinque juridique communautaire de Hamilton is a community based not for profit agency. We provide legal services to low income individuals and communities.

Our goal is to promote access to justice and to improve quality of life. We’ve been asked to make a regular contribution to the Sherman Hub News. This will be our first piece.

At the Clinic we practice what is referred to as poverty law. Put simply, our work is in those areas which disproportionately impact on low-income individuals or disadvantaged communities.

As you can imagine one of the busiest areas of our practice is landlord and tenant law.

We offer information, advice and representation to low income tenants. If a tenant is having a problem with their landlord or rental unit, we can help explain rights and obligations under the law. We can also advise tenants when to get help from another service and how to take legal action to deal with issues. In some cases we will represent tenants at a hearing.

Tenant Advocacy

Another part of the clinic’s mandate is to provide community development, law reform and public legal education. Here case work intersects with advocacy. Over the years we’ve been actively involved in tenant advocacy initiatives. We’ve worked with groups like the Solutions to Housing Action Committee (SHAC), the Tenant Outreach Education and Information Committee and others.
There have been times when tenant work has been relatively well resourced. This is not one of those times. Some of you will remember a group called the United Tenants of Ontario. Many years ago UTOO, as they were known, provided a strong voice for tenants. The group faded away in the nineties. In Hamilton tenant advocacy projects have come and gone over the years.

Left off the List

But that work is important. A recent article in the Citizens at City Hall (CATCH) newsletter hints at why it is.

According to the CATCH story, “(t)housands of Hamilton adults are missing from the city voters’ list and the main cause appears to be long-suspected discrimination against tenants.” (See http://www.hamiltoncatch.org/view_article.php?id=1213)

In Ward 3, where about half of all the housing is apartment or duplex, nearly a fifth (20%) of residents are left off the list.

The omission of tenants is becoming more of a problem. No one comes knocking at your door to put your name on the list of electors any more. Since 1999 enumeration has been taken over by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). MPAC’s mandate is more about determining property values for taxation purposes than maintaining accurate and updated voters’ lists.
It is not news that tenants need to step up to the plate to represent their own interests. One way to do this is by participation in municipal elections. Historically, municipal politics has been about property and protecting householder’s property values. However, about twenty percent of the average rent payment goes to city hall in the form of property taxes. In addition, much of what gets debated and decided upon at City Hall impacts tenants.

In the 2006 election, the Clinic was involved with an outreach effort called I’m a Tenant and I Vote. We distributed flyers and had a media campaign pointing out to tenants the importance of voting. We had some success when we argued that tenants needed to know how much of their rent went to pay property taxes. Now, the city notifies renters how much they are paying in taxes based on their building’s tax totals. Tom Cooper, who worked at the Clinic at the time, remembers that a tenant in a $700/month unit paid equivalent tax to somebody who owns a $150,000 home.

Another issue we pushed in 2006 was the need to establish appropriate and fair municipal tax rates. We did this because the current system is not fair. Multi-residential taxpayers pay nearly three times the rate of residential (single unit) taxpayers. Tom Cooper, now with the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, documented that reality in a story in Raise the Hammer. (http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/577/tenants_and_taxes)

A city committee looked into this but nothing has changed. With the municipal elections less than a year we’re concerned that tenant voices won’t be heard.

What can be done?

Some municipalities are taking the issue seriously.

As the CATCH story points out:
“Toronto has recognized the voter participation shortfall among tenants and taken specific steps to tackle it, including locating nearly half their polling stations inside or within 800 feet of an apartment building. That was partly in response to a campaign calling for a polling booth in every apartment building that has more than 100 units.”

A campaign like that needs to happen here. Perhaps the neigbourhood hubs can take a leadership role in addressing the voter participation shortfall. The Hamilton Community Legal Clinic will help.

"Transit Talk"

I’ve heard that there have been significant changes to Burlington Transit routes.  Living well outside the GTA/Hamilton, as I do now, it is hard to keep track.  This week I got a better idea of what the changes entail.

There is a new schedule for one.  That is the third new schedule in 2013. That doesn’t bode well for riders and businesses looking for some consistency in planning how to get around.

I listened to a tape of the CFMU show Unusual Sources where the Transit Talk show presented a discussion on some of these changes.

As far as how these changes are being promoted Transit Advocate James Smith put it this way:

“They are saying the right things but when the rubber hits the road that’s just not the case.”

Fairview/Plains enhancements are a good thing but, as host Doug Brown pointed out, they are offset by reductions elsewhere.  Burlington Transit’s extremely small fleet of 52 buses now covers 33 routes.

One of the most surprising changes is the elimination of Mapleview Mall as a pick up and drop off point for BT routes.

On the positive side James talked about improvements that Mississauga is making with a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) program.  In one year, they achieved a significant reduction in car trips. 

TDM is a term used to describe strategies that improve transportation efficiency. TDM emphasizes the movement of people and goods rather than motor vehicles.  The term Mobility Management is now replacing TDM as a more useful descriptor.  (Learn more about Mobility Management at http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm51.htm)

Perhaps Burlington could learn something from Mississauga.

You can find the CFMU show (it lasts about 20 minutes) by clicking here http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=726427&songID=12571313&showPlayer=true