Housing key issue in child poverty
November 26, 2009
By Cam Fortems
Kamloops Daily News Staff Reporter

Housing and child care are key parts of the fight against child poverty, local advocates said following a report that found B.C. with the highest rate in the country.

Advocacy group First Call reported the province had 156,000 poor children in 2007, a year Elizabeth Fry Society executive director Louise Richards noted was a good one for the economy. Jobs were plentiful and welfare rolls small.

Richards said the numbers are bound to be worse this year due to the worldwide recession and joblessness.

In addition to being a facilitator with Changing the Face of Poverty, an umbrella group of government, non-profit groups and business representatives, Richards is executive director with Elizabeth Fry.

She said housing is a key factor in the statistics and presents a chance to make things better. Kamloops, like many B.C. centres, has high rents and low vacancy rates. Aside from social housing, rental units have not been constructed here in a decade….

Deb Frolek, a member of First Call, the child and youth advocacy group that authored the report released Tuesday, said poverty can force parents into making poor child-care choices.

“If families can’t afford quality care, and child care isn’t cheap, what are the alternatives?”

Low-income parents can be forced into underground child care, with poor supervision and conditions without positive interaction with other kids, Frolek said.

Children may be left to fend for themselves after school when they are far too young.

Frolek is executive director of Kamloops Child Development Centre, where hours have been expanded to help parents who don’t have a traditional 9-5 job.

“A lot of parents have more than one job.”…