Poverty in Sault Ste. Marie: Ready for solutions

Last week, Rob Rainer from Canada Without Poverty and I traveled to Sault Ste. Marie. We were there at the invitation of St. Andrews United Church, to speak at a two-evening forum on poverty organized by the Rev. Phil Miller. Local Member of Parliament, Tony Martin, organized events during the day, including a visit to the Soo's food banks, soup kitchens and shelters. It was a powerful learning experience for Rob and me, and an excellent opportunity to share inspiration with others in the fight against poverty and to build excitement for our forthcoming Dignity for All campaign.

We were warmly welcomed by the staff at all of the organizations we visited, as people eagerly shared about their work and its challenges. All of the organizations are doing really good, important work. They are run by selfless, dedicated people, often working for very low wages and salaries, and heavily dependent on volunteers.

But all of them are in need of consistent, committed core funding. This need for funding distracts from their ability to meet people's needs, limiting the extent of their services or making them wonder if and how they'll continue to exist.

People are also frustrated with crisis management, never quite being able to stay on top of the problem, meeting all the needs, let alone worrying about solutions. The people of Sault Ste. Marie want to see solutions now, and they recognize that requires leadership from government. It also requires that the community work together, and we heard both the desire and the commitment from people in the Soo to start working together. There was a desire to keep meeting together, in the way that these community forums started, to keep the dialogue going.

We also heard of the importance of faith communities, frontline service providers, neighbours all talking together, across boundaries. That first step of sharing is necessary to develop momentum in the movement against poverty, share resources and identify common needs.

Like many Canadian communities, Sault Ste. Marie is seeing an increase in food bank and soup kitchen use because of the economic crisis. There have been layoffs recently at the major plants in town, and not a lot of other jobs available. Employment Insurance isn't available to everyone, and it isn't enough to make ends meet for those who do qualify. Ontario Works, meanwhile, leaves people with insufficient resources for rent, heat and food. As a result, people need to turn to food banks for help.

There is also persistent poverty in the Soo that never went away while the economy was good. One of the questions we were asked constantly was, “What does poverty look like in the Soo? We don't have homeless people here like you do in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.” But what Rob and I heard repeatedly is that they do have homelessness in the Soo. People can't afford high rents on low incomes, and need to turn to shelters or couch-surfing, even if staying on the streets isn't an option because of the climate.

In fact, a recent increase in the cost of housing has added to the burden of poverty in the Soo. People have been forced to take cheaper housing that is poorly insulated, resulting in high heating bills, or to live with three or four other people in order to afford rent. Many more live in social housing that is badly in need of refurbishing. One woman told us that she had been recently moved out of her social housing unit while they removed asbestos from the building.

Because of this, there is a need for solutions that are adaptable to the particular problems faced in the Soo. One size-fits-all programs across the country don't necessarily respond to the unique situation of each community. In Sault Ste. Marie, for instance, they have a number of vacant buildings, contractors who are willing to renovate them into social housing units, and community groups which are prepared to run them as non-profits, but they can't get the necessary funding. If the new funding for building social housing was made available for a project like this, it would be perfect for the Soo's needs. A smaller community like this also has a harder time coming up with the matching funds required for federal funding.

The visit gave us a deeper understanding of the situation of poverty in Sault Ste. Marie, and a glimpse into the hardwork of so many dedicated frontline service workers. It gave me an appreciation for the deep need for action on poverty and inequality in Canada, when so many Canadians struggle to live in dignity as their human rights are violated by poverty. It also gave me inspiration to see a community commit to talking and working together to end poverty locally, as momentum builds for a national movement on poverty.