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Chronicling a life of poverty

Woman's story highlights state of Winnipeg's inner city

By: Kevin Rollason

10/12/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 48

Claudette is so poor she knows to the penny how much a brick of margarine costs at different stores in the North End.

And the 45-year-old woman also knows when she doesn't have enough of those pennies to buy one for $1.25.

"I was walking down the street (on Tuesday) trying to panhandle for a pound of margarine," she said Wednesday.

"Of course, I didn't get it. Nobody I asked had $1.25. But today I got lucky -- I've got a free lunch."

That free lunch came courtesy of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which released its fifth annual State of the Inner City report at Thunderbird House.

The CCPA report maintains some of the news is good: The percentage of households in the inner city living in poverty has decreased from 48.25 per cent in 1996, to 29.60 per cent in 2006. The non-inner-city rate is 20.20 per cent.

But the CCPA also says some of the news is not good: The percentage of aboriginal people living in poverty compared to the non-aboriginal population in the inner city didn't change over the same 10-year period, with aboriginal poverty 2.27 times greater than non-aboriginal.

But to put a face to inner-city poverty, the CCPA gave journals to seven people on social assistance to chronicle their daily experiences over a four-month period.

Claudette -- not her real name -- was one of them, and that's why she was eating the free sandwiches and preparing to pack some for later.

She was born on a northern reserve and came to Winnipeg when she was 13, pregnant with her first child. The parents she left behind were alcoholics and her father was verbally abusive, leading her to have emotional breakdowns.

At 23, Claudette married and had a second child. But both she and her husband are totally dependent on social assistance and disability assistance because neither can work.

When Claudette is able to scrape together a few extra dollars, she wrote in her journal that she plays bingo to try to get more money to pay for what welfare does not and with the dream of getting ahead.

"I won $30 last night -- that's how I got my tea bags, wieners and buns and mustard. These things are extras I can't afford on (her husband's) and my welfare. Things other people take for granted. I haven't had a cup of tea in two months! You won't believe how good that tea tasted!"

Claudette said about three weeks ago she put together $10 and went out shopping for lard, milk, soup and meat.

"I went to (a store) and paid $1.99 for one litre of milk instead of $2.29 at my usual store," she said.

"But the no-name lard was $2.69. I almost fainted because for a no-name brand I didn't want to pay close to $3. So I walked out and went all the way to Powers and Selkirk where it was $2.39. That's a lot cheaper than $2.69.

"Then I went to another store searching for tomato soup because I got a cabbage from (Winnipeg) Harvest and they said Campbell's tomato soup was 99 cents, but no name was 66 cents a can. I grabbed three of them.

"Then they said bacon was on sale for $2.50... I grabbed it.

"I got all the way home and I got everything I wanted for $8. But I had to walk a lot and it was cold."

Jim Silver, a politics professor at the University of Winnipeg and a founder of the CCPA, said the focusing of attention and provincial dollars is seeing results at the Lord Selkirk Park public housing complex.

Silver said since 2005, when the CCPA saw little that was positive there, there is now a resource centre providing a drop-in service, an adult learning centre, an adult literacy program, and soon a child-care centre providing 47 spaces, 16 of them for infants.

"What this shows is it is possible to make significant change in even the most difficult neighbourhoods."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

 

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 10, 2009 B1

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48 Commentscomment icon

Poverty is an excuse.

I know about poverty because a single mother earning minimum wage as a hotel maid raised my brother, sister, and me. We lived in a rented suite in the North End with no cable TV, no cell phone, Internet access, or automobile. However, our entertainment consisted of all the library books we could read. Grocery shopping was done using a bus as my mother was on her way back from work to prepare supper at home. She inspired us to work hard in school, perform household chores, and look after each other. In the end, all three of us managed to graduate from high school, take out student loans, work our minimum wage part-time jobs to support ourselves, and we all managed to make the university honour rolls. Not once did my mother consider taking social assistance because she thought this would send the wrong message to us.

"Keep repeating TO vulnerable and victimized people that they are worthless and deserving of no better fate and eventually, they will come to believe it." rather.

The hallmark characteristic of the over-privileged is their denial of social injustice.

They believe that everyone gets exactly what they deserve. They rationalize poverty by reassuring themselves that they good people -- and that the poor are defective people.

This is known as the "just-world hypothesis". It is condescension, it is Schadenfreude, it is a renunciation of moral responsibility, and an indulgence of the appetite for selfish apathy, wallowing pride, and ultimate cruelty.

This base philosophy flows downwards into the bloodstream of the poor. It taints their self-image, distorts their ambitions and poisons the human spirit with a desperate and inarticulate anger, so they will self-punish, lash out, and self-destruct.

Keep repeating that vulnerable and victimized people that they are worthless and deserving of no better fate and eventually, they will come to believe it.

Thus is the status quo maintained.

"Smug over-simplifications, self-righteous scoldings, and cantankerous self-congratulatory anecdotes inspire me with nothing but contempt for the over-privileged."

A bit harsh, don't you think? I understand where this "Anonymous Commenter" may be coming from, but still none the less, was a bit rude and quick to judgment, which is in this case hypocritical because they're condemning everyone for doing the same thing.

Some people who have commented may not be in much position to because, yes, they may have had the privileged life and have no notion on what it's like to live in poverty. But we're all seeing the same thing, and it's the same thing we see everyday driving down main, or through the north end.. It's the same reason we have to watch what streets we walk down. And it's the same reason we are all quick to assume things in this situation. People take advantage of the system, they end up trapped by their own weak minds and addictions, and they live in a downward spiral, just like their families and everyone around them did.

We can complain and criticize and question till we're blue in the face, but no one is the same. Every story, every reason for being on welfare and not able to work, every road to where they are now, and every reason why they're not getting the help they need is different. We are never gonna understand all the stories, and this is always gonna be a problem in our society. It's up to us to understand and help the people who really want and need it.

simplysunny don't post if you don't know the facts. RT514 called you out and is right.

The system has to change and this is how.
Stop handing out cash to people on S.A and start giving them credit at gorcery stores. The store can have a set list of items that they can buy (healthy food) and a list of stuff they can't (pizza pops, chips, tv dinners, ect) This way it takes the cash out there hands so it can't be spend on cigarettes and beer.

Easy as that.

@gourd of Reason

yup. you are right about the nutrition aspect. $8 would buy ALOT of macaroni... never mind a subtanial amount of rice.

But your comment also triggered a quick observation. I thought that the price of 1 litre's of milk were regulated? This is why that if you go to 7-11.. buying two 1 litres is cheaper then buying one 2 litre. What store in this city is getting away with Charging 2.29 for a 1 litre or even 1.99?

@ anonymous poster at 8:03

How exactly do you decide who is "over-privileged"?

There are extremely few people who have been born with a silver spoon in their mouths - and even they could screw that up with poor decisions. The rest of us have not been "lucky" or "fortunate". So stop resenting and guilting people for being successful in life. It is to our CREDIT that we did the RIGHT things to become so.

I would assume that she probably puts in more money into Bingo than she wins, so how is this a good idea?

Smug over-simplifications, self-righteous scoldings, and cantankerous self-congratulatory anecdotes inspire me with nothing but contempt for the over-privileged.

// Regarding the bingo thing, do you expect her to have no social life what so ever? Surely we can't expect her to sit in her home, day after day, doing absolutely nothing? Imaging what that would do to your mental health. Going to bingo is no different that seeing a movie at SilverCity. //
Wow, how about this for a mental activity.? taking part in the FREE educational courses offered in her community. So she is employable. Oh but that'd require some work and commitment.
Easier to stay on welfare, blame the system, and take part in a left wing organization's media exercise..

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