Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Poverty Task Force

Poverty Task Force/United Way Community Update #213

Dear Colleagues,

We are starting 2025 with an impactful series of meetings on Community Hubs in Grey Bruce. 

Colleen Seaman Trask’s presentation this Friday on OSHaRE will provide valuable insights into how community hubs can evolve and expand their services to meet a variety of needs. Grey Bruce Food Share, Supportive Outreach Services, Family Assist Market and other health clinics at OSHaRE are great examples of how a community hub can become a multi-faceted resource.

Our discussion will be on:

  1. The Evolution of Community Meal Programs: Highlighting how OSHaRE’s meal program started and transformed into a more comprehensive service that addresses food insecurity, health care access, and community connections.
  2. Partnerships and Collaboration: The role of partnerships with local organizations, food rescue, and volunteers in making these services sustainable and impactful. And how the OSHaRE model can be adapted or implemented in other areas of Grey Bruce.
  3. Sustainability Challenges: How OSHaRE has navigated the challenges of funding and resources. And what long-term sustainability challenges exist in meeting the diverse needs of the community.

Please join us for some insightful conversation! 

FOOD SECURITY

2024 was a rough year for many households.  We have seen a significant increase in the number of people accessing shelters, food banks, community meals and seeking financial assistance. Bruce Power distributed $300,000 to food banks this past year to support the need. It is important to upload your data to Food Bruce Grey to ensure that you are on the Bruce Power distribution list. 

  • OSHaRE: distributed 25,000 meals in the month of November and 23,000 in December 2024.  These monthly numbers still remain higher per month than pre-pandemic annual numbers.  A total of 197,128 meals in 2024. 
  • Meaford Food Bank: added 96 new households in 2024. 211 households were served food hampers in December 2024 and 256 children benefited from their Christmas Star shopping program. 
  • St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church: on average provide food hampers to 55 people weekly.  They saw a slight decline in December to 27 people/week. 
  • Grey Bruce Good Food Box: volunteers packed 17,878 boxes and 2,700 tokens were distributed across the region (note: not all December data is included) at 23 locations. 

Go to Food Bruce Grey to look at more data on Food Banks, Community Meal Programs and Food Rescue in 2024. https://www.foodbrucegrey.com/all-dashboards

HOUSING SECURITY 

AMO Municipalities Under Pressure Report: Ontario has seen a staggering increase in homelessness in recent years. For the first time, this report collected and analyzed data from all 47 consolidated municipal services managers in the province to fully illustrate the scope of the crisis. Report data demonstrates a systemic failure that extends beyond housing, reflecting deep gaps in healthcare, mental-health services, justice systems and more. Reports on Ontario’s Homelessness Crisis, Water and Wastewater Utility Feasibility | AMO

  • In 2024, 81,515 people experienced homelessness and 41,512 people experienced chronic homelessness in Ontario.
  • 17,000 permanent shelter beds exist in Ontario. 
  •  Without significant intervention, homelessness could more than triple by 2035, leaving up to 294,266 people without stable housing. 

In Grey County: 

  • Grey County is experiencing similar trends to other rural communities across the province. Locally, a point in time count in 2024 revealed 375 individuals experiencing homelessness in Grey County.  Of these individuals, 65 identify as Indigenous, 80 are children 15 and under, and 45 are youth ages 16-24. Adults account for 252 of the individuals and seniors (65+) 8. 253 of individuals are experiencing chronic homelessness.
  • Grey County also provides subsidized housing and maintains a housing waitlist. The waitlist has grown from 1,517 in 2022 to 2,230 in 2024.
  • In 2024, funding for housing and homelessness in Ontario was estimated at $4.1 billion. Of the three levels of government, 51.5% of was funded by municipalities. Grey County has invested $6.55 million since 2022 in homelessness support with projects including the purchase and renovation of a property in Owen Sound for supportive housing and the purchase of a former motel for short-term emergency shelter.
  • In 2023 Grey County partnered with CMHA to offer transitional, supportive housing to residents of Grey County who have experienced chronic homelessness.  The first participants of the program moved in December 2023 and since that time seven have graduated to permanent, stable housing with ongoing connection to CMHA supports.  This program offers opportunities to build skills and work on personal goals with the objective of being successful in maintaining permanent housing and ending the cycle of homelessness. 
  • Grey County took a major step in providing expanded short-term housing options with our acquisition of a 22-room motel in Owen Sound in February of 2024. This acquisition has allowed for reduced operating costs, improved access to staff and supports on site and a higher level of dignity for community members experiencing homelessness. This expansion of program services will allow for an increase of 5,600 nights of accommodations bringing the total capacity to 13,000 nights of short-term accommodations with the same level of operating funding. 
  • In addition to the 2 facilities, Grey County provides funding to Safe N Sound Grey Bruce to operate an overnight warming space for up to 18 individuals nightly. This provides a supportive environment with staff on site providing referrals to services, someone to talk to and refreshments. These spaces throughout the course of the winter support more than 3,000 nights of warmth to members of our community. 
  • Over the course of 2024, Grey County staff and community partners supported 176 households in exiting homelessness into stable accommodations, of those households 123 maintain those accommodations at the present time. 

The report notes the disparities of those facing homelessness in rural communities compared to cities including shelter capacity and affordable housing shortages, specialized supports, urban inflow pressures and transportation barriers. Without significant investment and coordination across all three levels of government, it will not be possible to scale up the infrastructure needed to create a system where homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.   https://www.grey.ca/news/providing-grey-county-perspective-amo-municipalities-under-pressure-report

  • Safe N Sound Presentation to Council – County Council – November 28, 2024
  • The National Indigenous Women’s Housing Network and Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network: launched “Mobilizing on the Right to Housing for Women and Gender-Diverse People in Canada: A Community Organizer’s Guide!”  The Guide mobilizes communities to contribute to Canada’s first-ever human rights-based review panel on homelessness for women and gender-diverse people. Download the resource   About Us — Gender Housing Justice

HEALTH EQUITY 

INCOME SECURITY

  • Tax Breaks: starting December 14th, 2024, the government has paused the GST & HST on groceries, kids’ clothes/toys, and other essentials. Those eligible for the rebate must be 18 years or older at the end of 2023; be a resident in Ontario on December 31, 2023; have filed their 2023 Income Tax and Benefit Return by December 31, 2024; and not be bankrupt or incarcerated in 2024. 
  • Disability Without Poverty Report: 1 in 3 people with disabilities living alone in Canada face poverty. Read the full Campaign 2000 report.   https://www.disabilitywithoutpoverty.ca/2024-disability-poverty-report-card/
  • Basic Income Guaranteed Forum Report:  was released after a national conference. The approach favoured in Canada is that of a basic income guarantee that takes other income into account and provides most help to those who need it most. Basic income is a strategic investment to improve wellbeing. It can tackle the polycrisis we are facing far more effectively than our current patchwork of programs.  BIG Success in the Making Doc – Eng + Fr
  • National Automatic Tax Filing Pilot Program:  83% of more than 2 million eligible Canadians filed their 2023 tax returns by phone, online or by mail using the agency Simple File services. Ottawa moving ahead on automatic tax filing. Here’s what to know – National | Globalnews.ca
  • Canada Pension Report: this Toronto case study shows too many people are not accessing OAS benefits they are eligible for and many of those people have English or French as a second language. https://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/publications/unclaimed-benefits/

TRANSPORTATION

TAMARACK PUBLIC WEBINARS

PUBLIC WEBINAR | From Policy to Practice: Advancing the National Poverty Reduction Strategy | January 22 | 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET | This webinar will explore what the Council heard from people across Canada in 2024, the federal government’s role in reducing poverty, as well as highlighting how communities – local organizations, collaboratives, associations and individual community members – can action this report.  WEBINAR | From Policy to Practice: Advancing the National Poverty Reduction Strategy

Cheers, Jill 

Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Community Updates, Poverty Task Force

Poverty Task Force/United Way Community Update 212

Reconciliation begins with a commitment to truth-telling. However, the burden of truth telling should not be placed solely on the shoulders of survivors. Reconciliation requires institutions, governments and individuals to live up to their own responsibilities and complete/fulfill the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action.

The most recent Annual Report from the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation reports that the voices of Residential School deniers are getting louder. The truth is that 699 Indian Day Schools were established and operated by the Canadian Government since the 1920’s, with an estimation of over 200,000 Indigenous children attending.

Seven of these schools were located in Bruce County – 4 in Nawash – Sydney Bay, Little Port Elgin, St. Mary’s Junior and St. Mary’s Senior School; and 3 in Saugeen – French Bay, Saugeen Village and Scotch Settlement.

We need to find more opportunities for truth telling.  Please read the full report here: 2024-NCTR-2023REPORT-LAYOUTS-FIN-WEB.pdf

FOOD INSECURITY

  • United Way, OSHaRE and Owen Sound The Salvation Army: have rung alarm bells saying that there will come a day when they won’t be able to keep up with the unsustainable rate of demand for free food. They are calling for income solutions such as the Guaranteed Basic Income.  Food banks and soup kitchens in Owen Sound struggle to meet growing demand | CTV NewsDemand for food charity skyrocketing
    • OSHaRE served 20,000 meals in September 2024; they provided 20,000 in all of 2020. 
    • OSHaRE served over 146,000 meals so far this year, the same as in all of last year. 
    • The Salvation Army Owen Sound is providing groceries to 1,300 clients/month, up 20% from last year alone.
    • The Salvation Army Owen Sound is providing over 30,000 lbs (13,610 kgs) of food to families each month. They have provided over $1.5 million of practical food assistance in one year to a community of 21,000 people. 
    • 125-130 families are attending the bi-weekly Family Assist Market.  
  • Food Affordability and Food Insecurity Report: was released by Grey Bruce Public Health and they are calling for income solutions to food insecurity.Food Affordability and Food Insecurity
    • Almost 1 in 5 Grey Bruce households struggle to purchase the food they need and are food insecure (18.3% averaged over 3 years). 
    • The report determined the cost of groceries for a family of four in Grey-Bruce in 2024 was $289 per week or $1,250 per month, representing a 1% increase from 2023. A single adult, meanwhile, must spend about $434 a month on food to meet Canada’s Food Guide recommendations, which is also a 1% increase from 2023. 
    • A full-time worker (40-hour week) earning minimum wage, which in Ontario is now $17.20 per hour, earns a gross monthly income of $2,752. 
    • Female-led single parent and lower income households are vulnerable to food insecurity. In 2022, 41.2% of households with children led by female lone parents were food-insecure.
    • In Meaford, a response to the report had Meaford Councillor Harley Greenfield state that municipalities are increasingly being drawn into these sorts of social issues, largely due to pressure from the public, but municipalities aren’t equipped to address social issues, as they have always been outside of the scope of a municipal council. The largest, and likely most important role that municipalities can take on in order to help to find solutions to the housing crisis, or the food insecurity crisis, or the opioid crisis, is that of an advocate by pressuring upper levels of government, who are supposed to oversee such issues, and who are equipped and funded for such problems. GBPH’s Report on Food Affordability Highlights What Many Already Know | The Meaford Independent
  • Parent Infant Feeding Support: a free virtual infant feeding support group starts up in Hanover (October 16th to December 4th) to support ALL families with food support.  They also offer free individual infant feeding support at the Family Health Team. 

HOUSING SECURITY

INCOME SECURITY

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Stay well, Jill

Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Poverty Task Force

Poverty Task Force/United Way Community Update #208

Dear Colleagues,

May 5th is Red Dress Day. May 5th honours the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, 2 spirit, and gender diverse people in Canada by encouraging learning and building awareness to end violence against Indigenous women, girls, 2 spirit, and gender diverse people.  Home Page | MMIWG (mmiwg-ffada.ca)

Starting in 2016, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls held 15 community hearings and spoke with 2,386 people. A final report was released in June 2019 which includes 231 Calls for Justice that “represent important ways to end the genocide and to transform systemic and societal values that have worked to maintain colonial violence”. Final Report | MMIWG (mmiwg-ffada.ca)

  • Indigenous women are four times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be victims of violence. Indigenous women make up 16% of all female homicide victims, and 11% of missing women, yet Indigenous people make up only 4.3% of the population of Canada.
  • Indigenous women are twice as likely to experience violence from their current or former partner. A little more than 13% of Indigenous people experience violence from their current or ex-partner, a proportion twice as high as non-Indigenous people (5.7%).
  • Indigenous women are more likely to experience physical and sexual assault than non-Indigenous women.56% of Indigenous women have suffered physical assault, and 46% have experienced sexual assault. By comparison, about one-third of non-Indigenous women have suffered these assaults in their lifetimes.

The Inquiry also released an engagement guide, Their voices will guide us, which will “introduce the value of Indigenous women’s and girls’ lives into the classroom and into the minds and hearts of young people. It will prepare educators to use a decolonizing pedagogy and a trauma-informed approach in their teaching.” Publications | MMIWG (mmiwg-ffada.ca)

  • Gimikwendaanin: honour and remember community fire at Gichi-Name-Wikwedong Reconciliation Garden, May 5th, 11am-1pm.

May is also Sexual Violence Prevention Month: throughout May, various initiatives are undertaken to raise awareness about sexual violence and promote prevention efforts. Join together in support of survivors, community service providers and advocates across the province to raise awareness about the horrific crime of sexual assault and all forms of gender-based violence.  

HOUSING

  • Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services: has launched a series of community engagements with urban Indigenous community members about housing priorities and how they can develop housing that meets communities’ needs. For more info email price@oahssc.ca
  • National Encampments Response Plan: the federal government allocated $250M to address encampments in their 2024 Budget. The Federal Housing Advocate’s call for a National Encampments Response Plan. Learn more about what this plan should look like directly from lived experts & the Advocate: https://loom.ly/32jzeGQ

FOOD SECURITY

INCOME SECURITY 

  • City of Owen Sound Council: approved a motion to support an increase to OW and ODSP, recognizing the cost of living and need to increase rates. https://pub-owensound.escribemeetings.com/Players/ISIStandAlonePlayer.aspx?Id=8fd4c38d-0d39-43e9-ac9a-562c572d9cef
  • Huron Perth CVITP Program: The tax clinics in Huron County and Grand Bend helped file more than 1,000 returns in 2022, which resulted in $1.7 million in benefits and refunds. For the 2023 term, Crane said clinic organizers don’t have a target goal but hope they’ll be able to at least file the same amount of returns.Local clinics ready to help with income taxes: United Way Perth Huron | The Stratford Beacon Herald
  • Grey Bruce CVITP Network: the PTF’s Income & Employment Security Action Group shall be holding an annual gathering on May 25th, 10am-2pm at the Walkerton Clean Water Centre.  GB CVITP organizations shall join the Action Group to appreciate the work of volunteers and debrief about this year’s program. GB CVITP helped 3,050 individuals to file 3,550 returns in 2022, across 3 Counties, which is estimated in $9 million in benefits and refunds.   Look out for a poster and registration coming out for this event. 
  • Seniors and poverty: seniors have some of the lowest poverty rates in the country relative to Canada’s official poverty line. Seniors’ poverty rates are consistently lower than the national poverty rate. Yet, many seniors across the country are struggling. Reports find that reality doesn’t match the statistics. Seniors’ poverty isn’t properly measured (irpp.org) and A fine line: Finding the right seniors’ poverty measure in Canada – Maytree
  • Longevity literacy: Longevity literacy is an understanding of how long people tend to live upon reaching retirement age. It is particularly important since retirement income security requires planning, saving, and preparing for a period that is uncertain in length. A recent US study found:
  • Only 12% of U.S. adults have strong longevity literacy—i.e., they demonstrate an understanding of how long 65-year-olds live on average, as well as the likelihood of living to an advanced age versus the likelihood of dying relatively early.
  • 31% have weak longevity literacy—i.e., they demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the distribution of life expectancy at age 65. This is a knowledge gap that can keep them from planning and preparing adequately for retirement. TIAA_GFLEC_Report_PFinLongevity_August2023_02.indd

TRANSPORTATION 

  • Transportation Funding: the Ontario government announced transit a $1,052,544 investment from the 2023-24 Gas Tax program. The funding will support ongoing services of the Saugeen Mobility and Regional Transit Corporation (SMART) on behalf of the Municipalities of Arran-Elderslie, Brockton, Chatsworth, Grey Highlands, Hanover, Huron-Kinloss, Kincardine, Saugeen Shores, Southgate and West Grey; Meaford Moves+ accessible transit and the City of Owen Sound transit. 
  • Owen Sound Chamber of Commerce: is carrying out a transportation survey to determine needs of employees and employers in the area. Business Transportation Survey (surveymonkey.com)

Cheers, Jill 

Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Community Updates

Poverty Task Force/United Way Community Update # 207

Dear Colleagues, 

It is budget time again. 

Today the Federal government announces its 2024 budget. We have already had hints of what is included with the release of its Housing Plan. Infrastructure Canada – Solving the Housing Crisis: Canada’s Housing Plan and funding for a national school food program. Trudeau announces budget funding for national school food program – The Globe and Mail

The Ontario government released its 2024 budget 2024 Ontario Budget | Building a Better Ontario

INTER-GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS

HOUSING

  • Safe N Sound Overnight Pilot: the pilot program ran for the winter of 2023-24 (1 Nov 2023 to 31 Mar 2024). Grey County and Safe n Sound are currently evaluating the pilot including Safe n Sound staff and participants’ experiences. Grey County Staff looked at a snapshot of who was accessing SNS services in the short-term shelter program in January. They found people lived less than 3 years in Grey County (4%) 3-10 Years in Grey County (26%), 10+ years in Grey County (70%). In the first 4 days after the overnight program closed, SNS gave out 15 tents. 
  • Bynames List: the number of people experiencing active homelessness decreased from 217 (Jan 2024) to 162 (Mar 2024) and those experiencing chronic homelessness decreased from 144 (Jan 2024) to 130 (Mar 2024).

HARM REDUCTION 

  • Drug Test Provincial Pilot Program: Grey Bruce Public Health will introduce the provincial pilot program by the end of April.  A take-home drug test kits containing strips that test for fentanyl, benzodiazepines (sedatives) and xylazine (a sedative or tranquilizer) will be distributed.  The idea is to inform drug users and encourage them to take precautions, such as not using alone or using less of the drug.
  • Overdose Remembrance: partners came together for a memorial in Owen Sound. United Way Helps Remember Those Who Died From Overdoses | Country 93

Stay well, Jill