We need housing, but we must eat, too

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/03/2025 (198 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s plan to end chronic homelessness, Your way home, relies on wraparound supports, including food. Those rehoused will be on provincial social assistance, but the amount they are entitled to is insufficient to provide a basic, nutritional diet.

If people do not have enough money to eat, they cannot stay sustainably housed.

An immediate increase to Employment and Income Assistance (EIA) is needed to help those struggling to survive and to prevent homelessness.

This starts with disregarding antiquated ideas of poverty and of the “deserving and undeserving poor.” No one chooses to be impoverished — a lack of income and support traps people into terrible circumstances they cannot escape on their own. A human rights-based approach to poverty begins from the premise that every person is equal in rights and dignity, with the fundamental human right to an adequate standard of living. This is needed now more than ever.

The 56,642 Manitobans who rely on provincial EIA to survive are some of the most vulnerable in our province. They are children, the elderly, people with disabilities, people with mental health conditions, single parents and people unable to find jobs.

Those on social assistance are wholly reliant on government transfers to pay the bills — and during the affordability crisis, received no assistance from the Manitoba government to deal with steep inflation costs. EIA rate increases in 2023/ 204 and 2024/2025 were zero per cent each year, which means benefits declined in real dollars during that time of steep inflation.

The province, however, receives more revenue each year due to inflationary tax revenue and equalization increases. But this is not passed on to the poorest Manitobans dependent on provincial assistance. The government’s “affordability” mechanisms of cutting the gas tax for one year have not trickled down to low-income people, most of whom cannot afford a car.

EIA is insufficient: single individuals receive approximately $9 daily for basic needs. More than that, people’s benefits are clawed back if they earn more than $200 per month.

Food insecurity in Manitoba is at the highest rate ever. High food prices have forced people to rely on food banks.

Harvest Manitoba’s usage is up 30 per cent last year and has risen 150 per cent since 2019. Harvest Manitoba’s “Harvest Voices” 2024 report supports Make Poverty History Manitoba’s (MPHM) evidence-based recommendation for increasing EIA and creating a livable basic needs benefit in response to rising demand for food bank usage.

An immediate increase in EIA starting in 2025/2026 is required, with regular increases until 2030/31, to set this benefit at 75 per cent of the Market Basket Measure (MBM) of poverty in 2030/2031. MPHM estimates this would cost $45 million for 2025/2026, a very reasonable amount that would all be spent in the local economy to support local businesses.

In tandem, MPHM calls for reduced earned income clawback rates; those working while receiving benefits should be able to keep their first $500 of earnings before a 50 per cent clawback. This would absolve Manitoba of its shameful position among provinces with the most limited earning exemptions in Canada and align Manitoba more with provinces like New Brunswick, British Columbia, and Ontario.

The changes to EIA must be part of transforming this broken system into a “Livable Basic Needs Benefit” (LBNB) to finish on the basic-needs side what was accomplished on the shelter-benefit side with Rent Assist in 2015. The LBNB must be livable, indexed to inflation, portable, income-tested, and unconditional.

In response to critics, Manitobans must remember that current political choices and assumptions are trapping people into poverty and homelessness right now. Evidence shows that poverty rates can be reduced by investing more resources within Manitoba’s purview and control.

Additionally, there is a massive expense inherent in maintaining poverty, as evidenced in the burdens on the health care, criminal justice systems, and education that poverty tends, in aggregate, to enable. Changes to income taxes in Manitoba and the gas tax cut disproportionately benefited mid and upper-income people and widened the gap between the rich and the poor.

The Manitoba government must take steps to rectify this.

Make Poverty History Manitoba urges the provincial government to act to help those suffering now more than ever to bring down poverty and prevent further homelessness. By raising EIA to 75 per cent of the market basket measure, restructuring clawbacks to support those on EIA in entering the workforce, and instituting a dependable, livable basic benefit, the provincial government can choose to make substantial strides toward ending poverty in Manitoba this upcoming budget.

Desiree McIvor is the spokesperson for Make Poverty History Manitoba, and Kim Mason Atwell is a community development and advocacy practicum student at the University of Winnipeg.