Nova Scotia non-profits plead for higher income assistance amid rising cost of living – Halifax | 24CA News

Nova Scotia meals banks and neighborhood teams are calling for a right away enhance in revenue help for the rising variety of residents in a state of “crisis” who can’t afford housing or meals.

Current revenue help charges are “grossly” beneath the poverty line, Nick Jennery, govt director of Feed Nova Scotia, informed a legislative committee Tuesday. People who depend on this system, he mentioned, have described the scenario as “flailing around in the water with no life raft.”

“There’s a deep cruelty in leaving thousands of Nova Scotians on income assistance to live a life of damaging poverty …. Leaving so many Nova Scotians continuously waiting for that life raft is a political choice.”

The province’s monetary help program doesn’t stop meals insecurity, Jennery mentioned, including that as much as 45 per cent of individuals utilizing the 140 meals banks in Feed Nova Scotia’s community depend on authorities help as their main supply of revenue.

He mentioned the huge demand for meals was highlighted over the vacations, when his community helped feed 20,000 residents over Christmas _ the most important variety of folks within the historical past of its vacation meals program.

Christina Carter, govt director of neighborhood companies non-profit Chebucto Connections, informed the committee that the group’s work is getting tougher as the price of residing rises and pushes extra residents within the Spryfield space of Halifax towards homelessness.

She mentioned that over the span of simply 10 days, her group labored with a newly homeless one who was evicted for permitting folks to “couch surf,” and a single guardian with most cancers who was evicted for lacking a hire cost whereas ready to develop into eligible to use for social help.

Carter mentioned that in that very same 10 days, a senior in poverty informed her group that they have been contemplating medical help in dying “because they just don’t see another way out of the struggle.”

She mentioned revenue help should be instantly elevated to meet up with the price of residing, and listed with the speed of inflation to make sure susceptible persons are fed and housed. “The government needs to act on this crisis as quickly as they did with COVID-19,” Carter mentioned in an interview following Tuesday’s committee listening to.

“We’ve seen first-hand that changes can be made, that they can cut the red tape and do all kinds of things so that people are safe. So why is this any different?”

Data from the 2021 census exhibits that Nova Scotia is tied with British Columbia for having the very best price of poverty in Canada: 9.8 per cent of residents dwell beneath the poverty line. Nova Scotia additionally has the very best price of kid poverty throughout Canada, at 11.4 per cent — effectively above the 8.5 per cent nationwide price.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 10, 2023.

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