SPARC report examines East Side moms
Vancouver Courier
Cheryl Rossi
December 10, 2008

For some single mothers on the East Side, being "lucky" means their children have food to eat for breakfast.

That notion struck Michael Goldberg, retired director of research at the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C., or SPARC B.C., as the council released this week the results of extensive interviews with 17 single mothers.

 "The mothers who said to us they were lucky were the ones who were able to get local childcare, say in a neighbourhood house while they volunteered in a neighbourhood house, and some were able to get care for the whole week, which meant their kids got a breakfast program," Goldberg said.

SPARC B.C. released the report Tuesday based on interviews conducted by local researchers every six months between 2003 and 2006 with the mothers, all of whom lived on the East Side.

Goldberg and the report's co-author, Penny Gurstein, director of the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning, were surprised to learn all but one of the women they followed couldn't feed their families each month without food banks and meal programs on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. The other woman relied heavily on her family for help with food.

Yet not having food in one's home is often construed as neglect by the Ministry of Children and Family Development, which happened in one mother's case.

According to Goldberg, lone parents living on income assistance with two kids must cover all of their expenses including rent, food and transportation with less than $1,600 a month when provincial and federal benefits are taken into account.

According to statistics compiled by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the average rental rates for a two-bedroom unit in a secondary suite in Vancouver in October 2007 was $928, and in East Side apartments ranged from $954 to $1,117. People on welfare who are considered employable pay regular bus fares. 

"We just ask too much of people to try and put their lives together when they constantly have these struggles of just survival, of dealing with their impoverishment," Goldberg said.

Single parents on income assistance are expected to find employment once their youngest child turns three. The policy assumes the parents have completed their basic elementary and secondary education, because policy forbids welfare recipients from going to school while remaining on income assistance. Many of the mothers interviewed grew up in foster care or were abused or neglected. Many also housed relatives, gave support to their ex-partners and relied on neighbours and others for assistance with childcare. Instead of social workers contributing to the stability of a family, many of the mothers reported them to be another source of chaos because of the quick turnover in staff.

"One week they had a good one, the next one they felt like the social worker wasn't listening to them, and they were always getting contradictory ideas from people. So it really made their lives much more complicated," Gurstein said.

Every dollar a lone parent on income assistance who's considered employable by the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance makes is deducted from their welfare cheque. Employable lone parents were previously entitled to keep $200 of any earnings per month.

"We're the only province in the country, in fact even in North America, that I'm aware of, which doesn't provide any what they call earnings disregards or earnings exemptions for people who go and get part-time work," Goldberg said.

According to Statistics Canada, more than one in four families with children are led by a single parent, and 80 per cent of these parents are mothers. Among native children who are living off reserve, 46 per cent live with a lone parent.

The report concludes governments need to raise income assistance rates and allow lone parents to earn some money without it being deducted from their welfare. It urged raising the minimum wage to $10.40 an hour and increasing the federal child tax benefit from $3,200 to $5,100 per year per child in line with the cost of living for 2007. The report also recommends providing affordable housing and affordable child care and allowing mothers to continue education and training while receiving income assistance.

"By impoverishing these families, we actually end up hurting ourselves because of the healthcare, children in care, poor conditions, kids not getting a good start," Goldberg said. He added that even in rough economic times it's wise to ensure there are adequate income assistance rates, appropriate, affordable housing and childcare as part of an economic stimulus.

"These low income moms spend every dollar in their local community," he said. "They're not going anywhere with it, that's for sure."