Working with welfare

>> Community group Project Genesis wants the province to keep up with inflation

BASIC ESSENTIALS SACRIFICED: Lakoff

by SAMER ELATRASH

In July, a new provincial government policy will allow welfare recipients free prescription medication. It’s a good move, says Aaron Lakoff, an organizer with community group Project Genesis, although the government took its time enacting the measure, which it first promised four years ago.

For welfare recipients like Merle Reisler, who spends more than $100 a month on prescription drugs, it’s welcome news. However, she would still have to worry about making ends meet. At 61, Reisler receives about $842 a month from the government in welfare (including disability payments) and works 20 hours a week at a clothing store through a government employment program. Still, she says, when one factors in the rent, the bills and food and clothing, it’s not much to go on, and she has little patience with the notion that the government is generous with the amount of money it doles out. “Just trade places with me, and you’ll see the hardship you have to endure,” she says. And although she says her job is “keeping her sane,” and she’d like to work more, her age and health narrow her opportunities. “I have a Grade 10 education, and no skills. Who’s going to hire me? No matter who I talk to, they say, ‘You’re 61, too old.’”

“Sometimes the jobs don’t exist, and some people have constraints,” says Lakoff. “You could be a single mother or a recent immigrant, and face issues the system doesn’t look at.” In sum, the amount of money the government spends on welfare and on poverty reduction programs is insufficient, they say. “They’re not really investing in fighting poverty.”

The government increased welfare payments by one per cent last February (welfare cheques start at $560 a month), but that’s far from enough to meet the cost of living in Montreal, says Lakoff. “If you look around, you’re going to be hard pressed to find a decent apartment for $400,” he says, “and then you have to factor in the amount of money to eat proper food, to travel and to buy clothes.”

Lakoff says the poverty line (the amount needed to cover basic needs) is about $20,000 a year, and welfare payments should be indexed to the rising costs. “People often cannot cover their basic essentials, and they have to cut things out. Often they cut food, so they end up eating bad food, or they cut transportation,” he says.

Lakoff mentions lack of social housing in the city. According to housing rights group FRAPRU, roughly 24,000 families in Montreal are on a waiting list for social housing, and just one in 10 Quebec apartments are subsidized, well below the ratio of European countries, like France, Finland, the Netherlands and the U.K.

Aside from housing, the cost of public transportation in Montreal is too high, says Lakoff. Project Genesis is lobbying the Montreal transit corporation to allow welfare recipients and people who earn below the poverty line free transportation. “We look at public transportation as a public service,” he says.

Project Genesis is now lobbying the election candidates for the Côte-des-Neiges ridings, where the community organization is based, to raise welfare. “It’s not that the government can’t afford to [raise welfare],” he says. “Their spending choices haven’t been put to efficient means of fighting poverty in this province.”