When you think of luxury, a bus pass or a chocolate bar may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but inflation is giving new meaning to what some people consider an extravagant purchase.
Jules Hill, 26, says they never thought fresh produce or buying a chocolate bar would be considered a frivolous expense, but with rising costs, what once would not have taken a second thought seems like a luxury.
“There are groceries, there’s life insurance, there are all these other bills on top of rent, and at the end of the month, I am more often in overdraft than not,” they say.
“It makes me feel helpless; honestly, I don’t want to live in Barrie, but I feel trapped because there’s no way for us to build up any savings, there’s no way for us to feasibly put down a down payment or a first and last month on rent anywhere else. We can’t afford a moving truck. We can’t afford help to get around places.”
Hill, who is on Ontario Disability for chronic pain, says that between what they get and their parters’ income as a PSW, the couple makes around $2,400 a month, with over $1,300 of that going to rent, leaving little wiggle room for anything else.
Financial experts say households should spend around only 30 per cent of their income on housing, but Hill and their partner pay 54 per cent.
Is living in Barrie affordable?
Zumper’s national rent report showed that Barrie ranked as the seventh most expensive rental market in the nation in April, with the prices for one- and two-bedroom units settling at medians of $1,880 and $2,000,
A report from Remax said that the cost of living in Barrie is nine per cent higher than the national average and that Barrie was more expensive than approximately 88 per cent of all Canadian cities.
When Hill’s partner needed back surgery in February, they fell further behind in bills and faced eviction, needing to rely on help from family to get by.
No savings to fall back on and not being able to put any money for unforeseen emergencies adds to the stress when costs go up, Hill notes.
“We can’t afford to save; we can’t afford to prepare. We are living paycheque to paycheque because of the cost of living, and I hate it so much,” they say.
“It makes me feel so helpless and so powerless.”
They say it’s hard to feel like a burden on loved ones but feel trapped by the economic situation.
Hill says that while they have tried finding more affordable options, they find themselves stuck in a grey area, not making enough to qualify for some rent subsidies while being told they make too much to qualify for others.
It’s a vicious cycle that Hill says makes it hard to find the money to pay for things like a bus pass for their partner to get to work or to afford to do laundry regularly.
“More often than not, I go into overdraft with my bank account because I have to spend that money so that we can get clean clothes or spend that money so that we can get bread from the grocery store. It’s just money that we don’t have, and it’s money that I’m going to owe back.”
Sticker shock at the grocery store
In the last year, the Barrie Food Bank is reporting a 77 per cent increase in the number of individuals receiving food support, with 5,200 people being helped in March alone.
The number of children under 18 who received food grew by 64 per cent, and the number of seniors using the service grew by 50 per cent.
One of those first-time users is Diane Morrow, 62.
After an injury that shattered her foot a year and a half ago, Morrow says she had to go into early retirement.
Relying on a mix of early Canada Pension and disability, she makes roughly $1,200 a month to cover everything, with over 58 per cent of that going toward housing.
With so little wiggle room, Morrow says she is finding it hard to afford basic necessities, needing to live with a roommate to split the rent, and using the food bank to supplement the cost of food.
“I’m at a point where I have to. I don’t have any choice in the matter, and I am not happy with this at all,” she says.
When considering what retirement would look like, Morrow admits this was not what she planned for.
“I never thought I’d be in this position ever in my life. But things have changed, and I didn’t intend to be retired.”
Morrow has tried finding remote jobs she can do from her home to make more money but says even that has proven difficult, having encountered severe online scams.
“They’re looking for people like me. You’re sitting there going, ‘How can I try to make a little bit of extra money so that I can buy groceries or buy a bus pass, or, heaven forbid, you have to pay to do your laundry because you need clean underwear?’”
With so little wiggle room in her budget, Morrow says she is grateful for a local organization like Barrie Families Unite, which helps people do their laundry for free. However, even just getting there can be difficult without transportation.
“A bus pass to me is a luxury. I never thought I’d be that way, but that’s the way things are at this point.”
With inflation increasing 8.3 per cent over 18 months, according to Statistics Canada, Morrow and Hill’s stories speak to a larger issue as local organizations reported a dramatic increase in people reaching out for help.
“There is no bubble, no savings, no reserves. So when you’re living paycheque to paycheque, which again if you’re paying over 30 per cent of their income on your rent and your housing costs, as almost half of the renters in our community are, you have no wiggle room for four increases in costs,” says Brian Shelley, chief executive and philanthropy officer at United Way Simcoe Muskoka in February.
In February, the United Way told Global News that it is seeing a dramatic increase in the funds it administers through the Urgent Needs Fund and the Low Income Energy Assistance Program.
“The most jarring thing is the number of people asking for help that are not on our record of having to ask for help before. So it’s more and more people that have been able to get by previously, but they can’t keep up due to inflation.”
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