Report from Living SJ looks to put face to poverty in Saint John

A report published out of Saint John this fall is trying to bust some of the myths around poverty in the city.

Living SJ is an organization looking to put an end to generational poverty in the port city. In October, they published Poverty 101, a look at some of the root causes of poverty and what can, and is being done to ease the strain.

“The work of our network, Living SJ, really is to not only fight generational poverty, but to help to dispel some of those myths,” said Living SJ executive director Donna Bates.

“A lot of people think living in poverty is a lack of income, and absolutely it is, but really it’s more than that. It’s a lack of access to choice and opportunity.”

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The report uses the Low Income Measure (LIM), which defines the poverty line as less than 50 per cent of median household income, and is also adjusted for the number of people and incomes living under one roof.

According to the report 17.1 per cent of New Brunswickers live in poverty, compared to a national average of 14.2 per cent. In Saint John 22.5 per cent of people live in poverty, including 33 per cent of children.

Bates says Poverty 101 is an attempt to go past these hard numbers and explain the circumstances of some of these 22.5 per cent.

“Living in poverty is not a choice. It’s a situation people often find themselves in, and so we wanted to try to explain a little of how situations and how people’s lives lead to that,” she said.

“There’s a lot of barriers for people living in poverty. It can be things like access to transportation, access to affordable childcare, really even growing up in a situation where they knew what it was for a parent to go to work, to learn what those, as we might call ‘soft skills’ would be in terms of looking for a job and keeping a job.”

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Anne Driscoll, executive director of the Crescent Valley Resource Centre, says the report “puts in really succinct, easy terms things that we see here every day.”

“Those who know there’s a large poverty level in Saint John and they know that it’s a really serious ongoing, long-term issue, but they don’t kinda know why, where it started, where it came from — I think that document really spells it out well.”

Driscoll says the report does a good job outlining events that can put people below the poverty line and how hard it is to climb out once you’re there.

“Through [different] circumstances they end up living in poverty,” she said.

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“Through illness, through addiction, through marriage break down, through job loss, through family members being sick, a child could become sick, a parent has to stay home, incomes could be cut in half. I think we don’t realize how many people are really living close to the edge or are really living in poverty.”

Crescent Valley is one of the city’s five priority neighborhoods, identified as low-income areas that need intensive investment. Driscoll says poverty is often the most visible in this areas, but that  visibility can sometimes hide others who are teetering on the edge.

“I think it diverts attention from other areas where there is hidden poverty. You see the working poor, people without benefits, that don’t have a pension … but they’re working everyday, they go to work, they pay their rent,” she said.

The report pegs the Saint John poverty line at $22,133 for a single adult, $31,301 for a single parent with one child, and $38,335 for a single parent with two children or two parents with one child.

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Christina MacLennan is a single mother with three children and counts herself among the working poor. She says people often don’t realize the barriers faced by working poor that make it so hard to find any sort of security.

“As a single mom I have three children, two of which are special needs. So my barrier was trying to work, find daycare for them, [and to] afford that,” she said.

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MacLennan says she grew up in poverty which contributed to a feeling of limitation when it came to employment options. She wants that to be different for her children.

“I remember being quite young and just saying this is the life, that’s what it is. I know with my kids now, they talk about when they get older they want to have this job… I want for my kids to have those ambitions that, you know, maybe they could be a lawyer, maybe they could be a doctor, maybe they could be a surgeon,” she said.

“I don’t want to say it was never important for me, but it was never talked about. So now I want to change that cycle so that my kids have something to look forward to, so that maybe we can break the cycle.”

Breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty is at the crux of Living SJ’s mission.

“Ending generational poverty can result in an improved quality of life for individuals and families. It can better position our community to grow economically with more people participating in the workforce,” the report’s preface reads.

“However, it does mean investing our resources in people now rather than facing the increased costs resulting from a lifetime of poverty.”

MacLennan is a beneficiary of some of that investment. She completed the Enterprising Women program at the Saint John Community Loan Fund and now owns her own nail business.

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Penni Eisenhauer, a community organizer for the Saint John Learning Exchange, says that blanket funding won’t solve poverty. Rather, investment needs to be tailored to the needs of the individual in order for it to work, something she says the learning exchange does particularly well.

“Then they are coached through incentives to reach goals that will then allow them to transition to employment.”

She says the $10-million investment from the former Gallant government to end generational poverty in Saint John is being put to good use by Living SJ, which recognizes the necessity of a co-ordinated effort from public and private partners.

“Living SJ is really trying to look at poverty through a lens of co-ordination, innovation and a collective approach of all levels within government, including the business community,” she said.

“There’s a movement and a momentum right now and I think that with this approach, hopefully we can influence policy and decision makers to adapt their way of doing business to really reflect the needs of the person who is living the experience.”