An Ontario government decision to cut an important housing benefit is raising concerns among local social support agencies.
Earlier this year, it was announced that the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit is scheduled to end in January 2013.
“Community Start-Up is an absolutely essential fund for all people on (social) assistance to access housing and to make sure the housing is safe and affordable,” says Carrie Lynn Poole-Cotnam, chair of Social Services Workers Co-ordinating Committee, which represents more than 30,000 social service workers in Ontario.
For about 20 years, the benefit has helped low income earners secure and maintain housing. It provides up to $799 for a single person and $1,500 for families.
People can access the benefit once every two years to cover costs such as outstanding utility bills, first and last month’s rent and essential household items.
More than 16,000 people in Ontario rely on the benefit every month, which receives about $120 million in funding.
The benefit acts as a lifeline for people leaving abusive relationships, shelters or transition housing, explains Poole-Cotnam.
In its place, about 50 per cent of the benefit’s funding will now be shifted to municipalities for housing and homelessness programs.
The cut not only affects people, but also social support programs such as the ones offered at the Centretown Community Health Centre.
“We already struggle to help people access housing, as there is such a huge shortage; I can’t imagine it being worse, but now I suppose it is,” Lindsay Snow, community engagement worker at the centre stated in an email.
Snow explained that without the benefit, more people will become homeless, especially in Centretown, and the clients she already sees will stay homeless. This is because municipalities will now only have half the funding to deal with the same problems.
“It just worries me that the process for getting help will be very complicated and very restrictive and very time consuming and those things are huge barriers when people are trying to secure a place,” said Snow.
“We offer housing help here that is already busy and that will be doubled undoubtedly,” said Snow.
Not having the resources to help people in such desperate need will be very taxing on workers, Snow explained.
Centretown resident George Upchurch uses the benefit to help pay for his utility bills and rent on Bronson Avenue.
He is currently dealing with his landlord about a bedbug infestation and a broken door, which leaves him facing unbearable temperatures in the winter.
“I am going through so much stuff right now. My place needs a lot of fixing up and the cut will take that money away from me,” Upchurch says. “Sometimes my (hydro) bill is $450 and in the winter I have to pay extra because of my door.”
The Somerset West Community Health Centre is also concerned about the cut. On its website, it advertised an information session at about the cut, held at Patro d’Ottawa on Oct. 11.
Anti-poverty activists came out to inform the public about what implications the cut will have and how the benefit has helped thousands. Panellists, including Poole-Cotnam, encouraged the audience to join together in a province-wide movement to stop the benefit from being eliminated.
The CCHC is trying a different approach. Instead of targeting the province directly, it has organized a letter-writing campaign aimed generating action by the City of Ottawa.
“That way they know how important the Community Start-Up has been for people, what kind of things they have helped with.” Snow says. “And to make sure that continues.”