--> This Forum was turned into a podcast episode, find it HERE
Highlights of the Forum ‘Poverty Trends - The Question of Affordability, with Natalie Appleyard
Natalie Appleyard, socio-economic policy analyst at Citizens for Public Justice, author of the Poverty Trends Report 2024, helped us challenge our views on poverty and possible political solutions.
At Citizens for Public Justice, they start with the conviction that all are created in the image of God, that we are all equal in dignity and worth, that we are called to love our neighbor, to seek justice for the oppressed and to live in respect with creation.
People are seen as right holders. Affordability is the right to have an adequate standard of living, to afford the basic goods and services like housing, medication, food, clothing, childcare with one’s income.
Citizens for Public Justice analysis show disproportionate rates of poverty on some categories of population: when looking at the evidence in terms of who is experiencing poverty, we see huge disparities. It becomes very clear that this is not just a matter of people falling on hard times and needing a hand. People are facing systemic barriers. If they weren't systemic, we would expect to see similar poverty rates across communities and groups of people in Canada.
If we don’t take that systemic view, we end up individualizing the blame.
The way we view people dictates the way we respond to injustice.
It's really critical that we recognize poverty as a violation of people's inherent dignity and rights
Poverty is not inevitable, and some policies are better than others.
Solution geared to the middle class are often ineffective, inequitable and costly. An example: it's actually cheaper to provide someone with housing than it is to You Know cover the downstream health care or criminal justice costs that are incurred by homelessness. So we're spending more money for poorer results.
There are also historic reasons to current poverty: the Federal disengagement in housing 30 years ago, the cuts to education and Healthcare, the weakening of our tax system and regulatory controls which decreased revenue from corporations and wealthy individuals… It seems cynical to cut funding in the public sector, have it implode, and then ask the private sector to help. Profiteers jump in and make a profit on the back of the most vulnerable and on the taxpayers.
The current housing crisis is due in part to housing financialization: when housing is treated as a commodity rather than a place to live, with big for-profit actors buying up the housing stock and finding ways to remove rent controls in order to increase their profits and value for their shareholders.
Some policies are making it worse instead of helping out. We can choose better.
On housing, we could creating more affordable options and regulate against financialization of housing. For example, increasing the share of affordable non-market rental housing to 7% in Canada (now 3.5%), which would be inline with the OECD average.
Suggestions for individuals:
- Let your MP know what you care for.
- Don’t discard the power of being a faithful witness.
- To help a movement for change, there are many different roles possible. Everyone can find something aligned with their strengths.
- Facing big systemic issues like these, we have to get practical. We can’t do much on our own (join a movement?) and focus on what is pragmatic right now.