POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS

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POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS

• Week 10

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DEFINITIONS OF POVERTY

• No internationally-accepted definition of poverty
  
• Absolute poverty lack means to provide
  essential goods
• Relative poverty - means are small compared to
  others in population
• Poverty line (Stats Canada LICO)
• set of income cut-offs below which people may be
  said to live in straitened circumstances.

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POVERTY IN CANADA

• 2001 Poverty Rates from the Census (LICO)
• Canada 16.2 or 4,720,485 people
• Ontario 14.4 or 1,611,505 people
• 2001 Child Poverty Rates from the Census (LICO)
• Canada 18.4 or 1,245,650 children
• Ontario 17.0 or 455,965 children
• Poverty rates rising for young adults and falling
  for elderly

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CAUSES OF POVERTY

• Deterioration or stagnation of the economy
  especially in inner cities and small towns
• Loss of manufacturing jobs
• Increasing cost of living
• Stagnant disposal income over past 2 decades
• Reduction in government assistance
• Poorly educated and unskilled persons
• Single parent especially female, member of
  minority, illegal immigrant status
• Age - teenage mothers, children

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TYPES OF POVERTY

• Temporary
• Majority will escape find jobs, live with
  extended family
• Intermittent
• Periods of economic difficulty throughout the
  year
• Persistent
• Majority are women children who will remain in
  poverty

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CHARACTERISTICS OF POOR

• Attitudes, values, and lifestyle often are not
  consistent with wider community
• Less likely to be future-oriented
• Less concern about healthy lifestyles due to
  multiple stressors
• Poor ethnic families more likely to use folk
  remedies
• More illness, less family stability, poorer
  marital adjustment, greater problems in family
  coping, and troubled family relationships
  Voydanoff Donnelly, 1998

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POVERTY HEALTH

• Inequality of income is health determinant
• Key influences - degree of control over life
  circumstances, especially stressful situations,
  capability to act
• Low-income Canadians are more likely to die
  earlier and to suffer more illnesses, esp.
  chronic illnesses, disability
• Higher infant mortality rates, incidence of LWB,
  childhood mortality rates, poor nutrition
• Less access to health care, inadequate
  preventative care
• Substandard housing, poor nutrition, more
  exposure to crime

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HOMELESSNESS

• Creates physical and psychological stress
  usually socially isolated from family, friends,
  and social support networks
• Women-have greater incidence of mental illness
• Men-have greater incidence of alcohol and other
  substance abuse

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FUTURE DIRECTIONS (Bomar, 2004)

• Comprehensive health care access for all family
  members
• Focus on prevention health services, instead of
  current focus of crisis
• Education of unskilled
• More housing assistance
• Improved day care and after-school programs
• Flexible work hours and child care facilities
• Decrease caseloads of social workers
• Education of health care professionals about the
  needs of vulnerable populations