Poverty hits one-third of Burnaby families

Poverty hits one-third of city families
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Oct. 23, 2002

Poverty is a bigger problem in Burnaby than anyone ever imagined, according to a report released this month by a group of local social service agencies.
Almost one-third of the city's population live on incomes that fall below the federal government's official Low-Income Cut Off (LICO) point, says the document Beyond Statistics: The Burnaby Poverty Profile, produced by the Burnaby Poverty Initiative Steering Committee and the Burnaby Interagency Council.
"This report is a surprise and a shock," said John Argue, program director of the Working Group on Poverty. "Most people see Burnaby as a nice place to live. You see the mountains and the lakes, and you wouldn't think of poverty in the same vein as in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver."
The 100-page document, which is just now being circulated around the community, bases its findings on statistics collected during the 1996 Canada Census, and the personal stories of more than 150 poor people living in Burnaby who participated in a series of workshops and forums over the past two years.
The report shows that 27.8 per cent of the city's total population - 48,900 people - had incomes below the LICO rates in 1995.
The numbers are worse for families with children, especially for single parent families, according to the report.
Fully 31.8 per cent of all Burnaby families with children under 18 fall below the LICO rate.
And of the 3,900 single parent families in Burnaby with children under 18, more than half - 53.8 per cent - had incomes below the Low- Income Cut Off.
Because 83 per cent of single parent families in Burnaby were headed by women at the time of the study, the report concludes that women are "even harder hit" by the issues of poverty than men.
Other numbers indicate that 41.7 per cent of all aboriginal people in Burnaby live in poverty, and 35.3 per cent of immigrants in the city - 26,000 people - also fall under the LICO guidelines.
Jack Styan, executive director of the Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion, said the decision to conduct the study was made two years ago when members of the Burnaby Interagency Council - an umbrella group of more than 40 local nonprofit societies and agencies - recognized that every social service agency in the city was seeing increased need for their services.
"We held a forum in June 2001 and determined we needed to explore the issues of poverty further just to be clear on what the facts are," Styan said. "We decided to go on a fact finding mission, both in terms of finding the statistics and in extensively talking to people who are poor.
"We wanted to show that there are real people in these statistics," he said.
Gerry Juzenas, who describes himself as "almost 50 years old," is a client of BACI who was born with a brain injury. He lives on a government disability pension, and often has a tough time paying his bills, especially during months when there is a five-week wait between cheques.
"I just can't have a normal lifestyle," he said. "Sometimes I run out of food and have to go the food bank. Or else I have to buy stuff that's cheap just to survive."
With an income of just over $600 per month, Juzenas has to juggle the expenses of rent, groceries, cable and telephone. While he is a frequent and avid volunteer, and would dearly love to have a job, he is limited by his disability and the fact that he does not have a grade 12 education.
"It feels frustrating," he said. "I'm doing good things. I'd love to feel that I'm a fit person, but I can't even go to a movie."
Laura Ward, 19, said she was initially skeptical about the study but agreed to participate simply to make sure that young people had a voice.
"At first I thought it was bullshit... sitting around a table with a bunch of adults," she said. "But I also realized if I didn't stay, young people wouldn't have a voice."
She said young people have unique concerns because they can easily fall between the cracks. "The big challenge is education - youth want more than just a basic education. And as soon as you turn 19, you're cut off from all the youth stuff."
Ward said young people in Burnaby are fortunate to have youth centres to go to. And said the city-sponsored free food nights and clothing exchanges are some of the few services targeted specifically at young people.
Styan and Argue said the report is just the first step of what many groups hope will be a full-fledged action plan to combat poverty in Burnaby.
"Community awareness is just the beginning," said Argue, who hopes to make poverty an issue of concern during the upcoming city council and school board elections. "Sure the higher levels of government have more money, but council and school board can encourage them to deal with these issues."
The report also indicates that Burnaby is the third most expensive city in Canada. According to numbers collected by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, only Vancouver and Toronto have a higher cost of living. Unfortunately, the FCM survey was voluntary, and other similar-sized municipalities in the Lower Mainland, such as Richmond, Coquitlam and Surrey, did not participate in the study.