• The Near Poor: Many educated, employed Americans struggle to make ends meet, By Elizabeth Stuart, November 30, 2011, Deseret News: “Federal poverty statistics may not paint an accurate picture of how Americans are getting along economically, two new studies suggest. About 45 percent of U.S. residents who are not considered poor by federal standards don’t have enough money for basic expenses like housing, food and health care, according to a new study by the advocacy group Wider Opportunities for Women. And the number of people hovering just above the federal poverty threshold is 76 percent higher than official records indicate, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data published in the New York Times…”
• In U.S., Canada, new measures of the poverty line, By Miles Corak, November 28, 2011, Globe and Mail: “U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Rebecca Blank — a capable, no-nonsense, PhD in economics, and a former Dean at the University of Michigan — to his new administration, and told her to answer a simple question: How should the United States measure poverty? Blank did an end-run around the sad politics that has characterized discussions of poverty measurement in the U.S. by having the Census Bureau develop an entirely new indicator that reflects the realities of participating in contemporary American society…”

• Ottawa lacks plan to fight child poverty, coalition says, By Laurie Monsebraaten, November 23, 2011, Toronto Star: “When it comes to helping Canada’s 639,000 children living in poverty, the more things change, the more they stay the same. That is the sobering message from Campaign 2000, a national coalition of more than 120 groups and individuals that has been lobbying for federal action on the issue for two decades. ‘Neither the promised poverty elimination or plans have materialized,’ the group says in its 20th anniversary progress report on Ottawa’s 1989 pledge to tackle the issue. The report, obtained by the Star, is being released Wednesday and calls on the government to cut poverty by at least 50 per cent by 2020. Canada’s poverty rate in 2009 was 9.5 per cent. And although the rate has inched up and down with the business cycle over the past 20 years, the report notes that the problem remains largely unchanged from 1989, when 11.9 per cent of the nation’s children were living in poverty…”
• Report: More kids living in poverty, By Frances Willick, November 23, 2011, Chronicle Herald: “It was 22 years ago this week that Canada’s leaders gathered in the House of Commons to unanimously pass a lofty, daunting goal: to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000. A laudable goal, yes, but in hindsight, it was unattainable. The most recent statistics, released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, show that child poverty has not only lingered, but for the first time since 2003, it’s on the rise. In 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available, nearly 10 per cent of Canadian children under the age of 18 lived in poverty. In Nova Scotia, 8.2 per cent of kids lived below the poverty line. That’s up from a nationwide low of 9.1 per cent in 2008 and a low in Nova Scotia of 7.9 per cent…”

Big cities attracting poverty, Statscan data show, By Heather Scoffield, June 21, 2011, Globe and Mail: “Canada’s biggest urban areas are stuck in a rut of persistent poverty, while mid-sized cities are gaining ground despite the recent recession, new data from Statistics Canada show. The metropolitan areas of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have poverty rates far above the national average, details of a report on income in Canada in 2009 show. But Quebec City and Victoria, on the other hand, have seen steady and significant declines in the number of people living with low incomes over the last decade, despite the recent recession.  The trends are no surprise to Mike Creek, who works with homeless and impoverished people in Toronto, after spending years in poverty himself.  ‘If you stick around in a smaller community and you have that shame (of living in poverty), you become stigmatized. So I think it’s easier for someone to pack up their bags and try some place else,’ Mr. Creek says.  Urban centres, he says, ‘provide more opportunities around housing, and job opportunities and services that they may not find in smaller communities.’  Released last week, the Statistics Canada report is the first detailed, national look at what happened to income during the recession…”

Recession stalls progress on poverty; almost one in 10 Canadians poor: StatsCan, Canadian Press, June 15, 2011, Toronto Star: “The recession stopped progress on poverty in its tracks, according to new data from Statistics Canada that indicates almost one in 10 Canadians is considered poor. In its first detailed, national picture of what happened to income in Canada during the recession, the agency says the poverty rate edged up in 2009 to 9.6 per cent - the second straight year that poverty has grown after more than a decade of steady declines. About 3.2 million people now live in low income, including 634,000 children. Indeed, children were vulnerable during the recession, with their poverty rate rising to 9.5 per cent in 2009 from 9.0 per cent a year earlier. But the picture of the recession is one of stagnation rather than complete catastrophe. The median after-tax income for Canadian families was $63,800 in 2009 - about the same as a year earlier…”

High-income homes 97% online, By Michael Oliveira, May 27, 2011, Winnipeg Free Press: “An overwhelming 97 per cent of the highest-income households in Canada had access to the Internet last year while just over half of the homes in the lowest income group were online, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday. Overall, about 80 per cent of all Canadian households had Internet access in 2010, with the highest penetration levels in British Columbia (84 per cent), Alberta (83) and Ontario (81). Almost all the homes with total incomes above $87,000 were connected, while just 54 per cent of households with incomes under $30,000 had access…”

400,000 rely on food banks each month in Ontario, By Laurie Monsebraaten, March 22, 2011, Toronto Star: “Hunger is a daily reality for Mike Crawford, 56, as he treks across downtown Toronto in search of soup kitchens between monthly visits to a local food bank. Crawford, who tumbled onto welfare after a nervous breakdown a decade ago, is among more than 400,000 Ontarians - or 3 per cent of the province’s population - who are forced to turn to food banks every month, according to a new report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks. Food bank use has grown by an unprecedented 28 per cent since the recession in 2008, making Ontario the third highest user of food bank services in Canada behind Newfoundland and Manitoba, says the report released Tuesday…”

Toronto’s poor concentrated in aging highrises, By Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star: “They rise up among the postwar bungalows of Toronto’s inner suburbs. Towering buildings that house hundreds of thousands of the city’s poorest people. These apartments are often the first home for those who came to this country looking for a better life. Once built to house modest-income and middle-class families, these aging highrises have increasingly fallen into disrepair and become rife with problems - drug dealing, vandalism, bug infestations, overcrowding - and increasing poverty. That is the bleak reality for too many highrise dwellers in Toronto, according to Vertical Poverty, a landmark report released by the United Way Wednesday. It is a troubling development in a city where almost half of residents are renters, says the report based on Census data from 1981 to 2006 and a survey of 2,803 highrise tenants conducted in the summer and fall of 2009. Although the bulk of tenants surveyed live in private-sector towers, responses from about 600 non-profit tenants suggest living conditions are worse in those buildings…”

• Welfare rules forcing people into destitution, report finds, By Laurie Monsebraaten, December 13, 2010, Toronto Star: “It is tougher to get welfare in Canada today than during the economic downturn of the early 1990s, the National Council of Welfare says in its latest report. That’s because Ontario and most other provinces force people to drain their bank accounts and spend all of their savings before they qualify for help, says the report, released in Ottawa Monday. As a result, it is almost impossible for those living on welfare to get back on their feet, says the council, created by Ottawa in 1969 to advise the minister of human resources on poverty in Canada. Other problems include rates that fall far below any definition of poverty and welfare claw-backs that leave those who find some work no further ahead, the report notes…”
• Welfare rules forcing people into destitution: Report, By Norma Greenaway, December 13, 2010, Vancouver Sun: “Too many Canadians are being forced to deplete bank accounts, retirement savings and get rid of other assets to qualify for welfare, a new national report says. The rules imposed on welfare recipients in most provinces are overly restrictive and counterproductive, says the report released Monday by the National Welfare Council. The combination of low social assistance rates and low earning and asset limits produces a ‘perfect’ poverty trap with no escape hatch, especially for single people, council chairman John Rook told a news conference…”

Number of seniors living in poverty soars nearly 25%, By Joe Friesen, November 24, 2010, Globe and Mail: “The number of seniors living in poverty spiked at the beginning of the financial meltdown, reversing a decades-long trend and threatening one of Canada’s most important social policy successes. The number of seniors living below the low-income cutoff, Statistics Canada’s basic measure of poverty, jumped nearly 25 per cent between 2007 and 2008, to 250,000 from 204,000, according to figures released on Wednesday by Campaign 2000. It’s the largest increase among any group, and as the first cohort of baby boomers turns 65 next year, could place increased pressure on families supporting elderly parents. Economists say women make up as much as 80 per cent of the increase in seniors poverty…”

To end poverty, guarantee everyone in Canada $20,000 a year. But are you willing to trust the poor?, By Erin Anderssen, November 19, 2010, Globe and Mail: “Nicole Gray, a 24-year-old single mother living in Victoria, feels like a ‘beggar’ every time she has to go into a government office and ask for help to pay her bills. She has finished her diploma to be an office medical assistant despite having gotten pregnant as a teenager. But job losses and the difficulty of raising her son, now 7, on her own have made her income unpredictable. Meanwhile, she says, the system is suspicious of every request and doubts every word. There are hundreds of rules. She has been sent away because she was missing one document. She has had to justify a no-contact order against her son’s father and had a caseworker scrutinize every detail of her bank account. Every interrogation ‘makes you feel very low to the ground,’ she says. And the worst, she says, is that you learn quickly ‘that you can’t count on anything.’ But what if we gave Ms. Gray and other poor Canadians something to count on: cash directly in their pockets, with no conditions, trusting people to do what’s right for them? It’s a bold idea, and it runs counter to the paternal approach to poverty that polices what is done with ‘our’ money and tries to strong-arm the poor into better lives…”

Young men the face of poverty in post-recession Canada: study, By Heather Scoffield, Winnipeg Free Press: “The recession has left a lingering bruise on an increasingly vulnerable sector of Canadian society: young, single men. As social scientists begin to dissect the effects of the downturn, they’re coming to the same conclusion Kerry Kaiser has reached intuitively, by watching the clientele at her downtown Ottawa food bank. ‘Single males are screwed,’ she said bluntly. ‘I don’t know why.’ She has an inkling, though. The young men who show up hungry on her doorstep are spending most of their welfare cheques on rent. They don’t get the benefits or the subsidies that governments have set up over the years for struggling families. And now, with low-skill jobs scarce in the wake of the recession, they can’t compete. ‘We see them getting it at all angles,’ Kaiser said. Her observation dovetails with the findings of John Stapleton, a social policy researcher who has just completed an exhaustive study of social assistance during the recession, for the Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation…”

• 1 in 10 Canadian children living in poverty: Report, By Amy Minsky, November 24, 2010, Montreal Gazette: “One in 10 Canadian children is living in poverty, according to a report on the status of child and family poverty released Wednesday. With Parliament’s self-imposed deadline long past, it still has far to go on the promise it made 21 years ago to eradicate child poverty by 2000. The most recent numbers show there is a 9.1 per cent rate of child poverty in Canada, down slightly from 11.9 per cent in 1989, the year Parliament unanimously resolved to end child poverty, it says in Campaign 2000’s report card, which cites data from 2008..”
• One in seven B.C. children living in poverty, Canadian Press, November 24, 2010, Globe and Mail: “An anti-poverty group says one in seven children in B.C. is living in poverty and the recession will likely make things worse. In releasing its annual report Wednesday, the BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition said while the child poverty rate dropped in 2008, the recession was also starting, and it’s almost certain to produce higher poverty figures for 2009 and 2010…”

Poverty a leading cause of Type 2 diabetes, studies say, By Andrea Janus, November 21, 2010, CTV News: “For years, Canadians have heard that obesity, a lack of physical activity and a family history are the top risk factors for developing Type 2 diabetes. But new Canadian research says that, in fact, it is living in poverty that can double or even triple the likelihood of developing the disease. ‘What we know about Type 2 diabetes is not only are low-income and poor people more likely to get it, but they’re also the ones that, once they get it, are much more likely to suffer complications,’ Prof. Dennis Raphael, one of the researchers, told CTV.ca in a telephone interview. ‘And the complications from Type 2 diabetes when they’re bad are really bad, whether it’s amputations, or blindness, or cardiovascular disease.’ Researchers from York University analyzed two sets of data: the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) and the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) for a study published in the journal Health Policy…”

• Health of 400,000 ‘nearly homeless’ Canadians similar to those on the street: study, By Heather Scoffield, November 19, 2010, Globe and Mail: “Hundreds of thousands of Canadians who are just one step away from being homeless are dealing with the same devastating health risks as people living on the streets, according to new research. Mental illness, hunger and chronic health issues such as arthritis and hepatitis are just as prevalent among the ‘vulnerably housed’ as among the homeless, research by a network of academics, doctors and community workers suggests. Their investigation in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa suggests that for every person sleeping on the street, there are 23 more who are at risk of becoming homeless - living in unaffordable, crowded and unsafe conditions…”
• Too many Canadians on brink of being homeless: Doctor, By Nicki Thomas, November 19, 2010, Toronto Star: “For every person sleeping in a shelter bed, there are 23 households on the verge of homelessness, according to a dire report released Friday. These ‘vulnerably housed’ Canadians are spending more than 50 per cent of their monthly income on rent in crowded and unsafe housing. And many face the same myriad health problems as those with no home at all, states the report that calls for a national strategy to address the housing crisis. Dr. Stephen Hwang, the Toronto doctor who authored the report, called the country’s lack of a national housing strategy ‘deplorable.’ ‘Housing is just as essential to the health of Canadians as nutritious food, clean air and fresh water and access to medical care,’ said Hwang, a physician with the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael’s Hospital. ‘If we ensure that people have their basic housing needs met, we would actually be making an investment in the health of our population.’ Earlier this week, a parliamentary committee released a report on poverty that also recommended a long-term national strategy on homelessness and housing…”

Poverty drives diabetes epidemic, By Moira Welsh, November 3, 2010, Toronto Star: “Every morning before breakfast Edgar Dawson pricks a tiny needle into the tip of his finger. He smears a drop of his blood onto a paper test strip in his glucose meter and waits to see if the flashing digital numbers tell him that his blood sugar level is okay. It’s a routine test that many with diabetes use, but Edgar - and thousands of low-income earners like him - can’t afford to follow his doctor’s orders by checking another four times a day. ‘I try to live within my means,’ Dawson, says in the modest Scarborough townhouse he calls home. ‘I try not to let it bother me too much.’ Dawson, 58, says he and his partner spend roughly $100 a month to manage his Type 2 diabetes with test strips, needles (known as lancers) for the glucose meter and other costs such as fresh vegetables and salads. To follow his doctor’s orders, and test between three to five times, he says he would have to spend another $200 a month…”

• High-school dropout rates fall dramatically: StatsCan, Canadian Press, November 3, 2010, Toronto Star: “A new study has found that high-school dropout rates have plummeted by almost half in the past 20 years. Statistics Canada reports that 191,000 young people aged 20 to 24 had not completed a high-school diploma and were not attending school in 2009-2010, or 8.5 per cent. That’s a big drop from the 1990-91 figure of nearly 340,000, or 16.6 per cent. The agency says dropout rates were lower for young women (6.6 per cent) last year than for young men (10.3). StatsCan found that, while rates have declined for both sexes, the rate of decrease was faster for men, narrowing the gap between the two…”
• High school dropout rate cut in half in 2 decades, By Mark Iype, November 3, 2010, Vancouver Sun: “The number of young Canadians not getting a high school diploma has been slashed nearly in half over the last 20 years according to Statistics Canada, a change many experts say reflects the rising value of education in the country. In 1990-91, nearly 340,000 or 16.6 per cent of young people aged 20 to 24 had not completed a high school diploma and were not attending school. But in the last two decades, that number has dropped dramatically, falling to 8.5 per cent of young people or 191,000 by the 2009-10 school year, according to data released Wednesday…”

• More people released from jail face homelessness: Report, By Jim Rankin, August 10, 2010, Toronto Star: “On a sticky day in June, Eric Cromwell changed into the clothes he’d worn when he was arrested two months earlier on an assault charge and walked out of the Toronto West Detention Centre on Disco Rd. He was given a TTC token but possessed little else. He did have a bachelor apartment where his rent is automatically deducted from his welfare cheque, but that’s where the latest trouble had occurred. There’d been an incident with a neighbour and conditions placed on him forbid him from going anywhere near home. He’d been in and out of jail a number of times, and on this occasion, as had been the case before, he had no home to go to. But he knew where to go. He took public transit to the Maxwell Meighen shelter at Queen and Sherbourne Sts. ‘Down here, to me, it’s like home,’ says Cromwell, 32. ‘I know where to go. I know where to get food. I know how to survive.’ Each year, more people - mostly men - are leaving Toronto jails with nowhere to call home and no plan or supports to keep them from heading back to jail, according to a report by the John Howard Society of Toronto…”
• Inmates stuck in cycle of jail and homelessness, By Joe Friesen, August 9, 2010, The Globe and Mail: “The path to prison often begins in homelessness, and the path back to freedom tends to leave former inmates homeless once again. It’s a vicious cycle of failed reintegration that leads to recidivism, according to a new report from the John Howard Society of Toronto. The report found that more than one in five inmates in the Toronto area were homeless when they were arrested. And there was little sign their prospects for integration were smoothed by their time in jail. One-third of inmates said they planned on living in a homeless shelter when they were released, and a further 12 per cent said they had no idea where they would go. The report, Homeless and Jailed: Jailed and Homeless, based on interviews with 363 people in jail, highlights the difficulties many former prisoners face when they are returned to the community. It concludes that current incarceration policies are adding to the problem of homelessness in Toronto…”

Child fitness tax credit little used by poor families, study finds, By Karen Kleiss, August 4, 2010, Vancouver Sun: “Canada’s fitness tax credit does little to encourage physical activity among kids from low-income families who can’t afford to pay registration fees, a new study says. The University of Alberta research found that middle-class and wealthy families benefit most from the $500 tax credit, and are twice as likely to claim the credit as are low-income families. Study author John Spence said low-income families simply can’t afford to pay registration fees in the first place, so they can’t take advantage of the tax credit down the line…”

Ontario should adopt bold vision for welfare reform, By Laurie Monsebraaten, June 14, 2010, Toronto Star: “Ontario should adopt a bold vision for welfare reform that includes new income supports and services for all low-income residents, says a government-appointed panel in a report being released Monday. ‘We are currently investing billions into federal and provincial programs that too often trap people in poverty and fail to offer alternatives to social assistance,’ said Gail Nyberg of the Daily Bread Food Bank who chaired the panel of anti-poverty experts. ‘Tinkering with a broken system will not lead to different outcomes. It’s time to unleash a bold review,’ she said. Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur appointed the panel last December to advise the government on the scope and terms of reference for a review of social assistance, promised in 2008 as part of the Liberals’ anti-poverty strategy…”

Heart attacks more likely among those with lower incomes, By Eva Ferguson, May 28, 2010, Calgary Herald: “Canadians living in lower income areas need to be better educated about preventive health care, eating right and exercising, particularly in the area of cardio health, experts say, after a national report showed heart attacks are more likely among Canadians with lower socio-economic status. The Canadian Institute for Health Information released its 11th annual Health Indicators report Thursday, concluding that Canadians living in low-income neighbourhoods have higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, smoking and other cardiac risk factors. In 2008-09, almost 67,000 Canadians were hospitalized for a heart attack. After breaking down the Canadian population into five neighbourhood income levels, the report found that Canadians living in the least-affluent neighbourhoods were 37 per cent more likely to have a heart attack than those in the most affluent areas…”

Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate drops by 36.9 per cent, By Zosia Bielski, May 26, 2010, Globe and Mail: “Better access to contraception, higher quality sex education and shifting social norms have contributed to a 36.9 per cent decline in Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate between 1996 to 2006, according to a report released today by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada. ‘This is a good news story,’ said Alexander McKay, lead author and research co-ordinator at the council. ‘It’s important to look at teen pregnancy rates because they’re a basic fundamental indicator of young women’s sexual and reproductive health. While not all teen pregnancies are a bad thing, when we see [rates] dropping, it’s a fairly clear indicator that young women are doing increasingly well in terms of controlling and protecting their reproductive health.’ The report, which appears in the current issue of The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, compares Statistics Canada figures with numbers from three other countries. The United States experienced a 25 per cent drop while England and Wales showed a more modest decline of 4.75 per cent. Sweden’s numbers, meanwhile, jumped by 19.1 per cent…”

• Minimum wage rising 50¢, By Larry Kusch, April 4, 2010, Winnipeg Free Press: “Coming Oct. 1, some 28,000 Manitobans will get a raise in pay. The province will announce today that it is raising the minimum wage this fall by 50 cents an hour — to $9.50. Business leaders hoped for a smaller increase — or no increase at all — at a time when many employers are suffering economically, while the Manitoba Federation of Labour sought a 75-cent-an-hour rise effective this past April 1. Labour and Immigration Minister Jennifer Howard said in an interview Wednesday the government tried to balance the needs of workers and business. The hospitality industry and seasonal agricultural businesses won’t incur higher costs until fall, she said. ‘Yet a 50-cent increase will allow us to maintain our position relative to other provinces… (and) also give those folks who earn minimum wage a significant enough increase that they would be able to buy things they need for their families…’”
• Minimum wage rises again in Man., April 8, 2010, CBC News: “Manitoba’s minimum wage is going up again and businesses are not pleased about it. The provincial government announced Thursday the hourly wage will rise 50 cents to $9.50. The change will take effect in October, said Labour and Immigration Minister Jennifer Howard. ‘This increase will help maintain the spending power of approximately 28,000 people working in minimum-wage jobs,’ she said. ‘The improved wage will give them a fairer income while helping Manitoba businesses recruit and retain workers.’ The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said the increase comes at a terrible time Shannon Martin, the CFIB’s director of provincial affairs in Manitoba, said the recession has hurt small businesses…”

Poverty advocates decry loss of diet allowance, By Laurie Monsebraaten, March 25, 2010, Toronto Star: “Ontario is scrapping the Special Diet Allowance that helps people on social assistance pay extra food costs related to specific medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Confirming the pre-budget fears of anti-poverty advocates, the Liberal government cited last fall’s provincial auditor’s report, which found evidence of abuse in the welfare-based program. Instead, the budget is proposing a new nutritional supplement to be administered by the health ministry. The allowance program that provides up to $250 per month and helps about one in five people on social assistance ‘is not sustainable and is not achieving the intended results,’ budget documents say…”

• Two decades on, child poverty persists with no solution in sight, By Joe Friesen, November 22, 2009, Globe and Mail: “Twenty years ago this week Parliament voted unanimously to eliminate child poverty within a decade. It didn’t happen. Ten years on, it still hasn’t happened. The most recent statistics, taken in 2007 before the recession hit, show 637,000 children, or 9.5 per cent of all Canadian kids, living in poverty. Why has Canada failed where other wealthy countries succeeded? In part because voters and governments have balked at aggressively redistributing wealth. But that’s only a small part of the story. More significant, according to sociologist John Myles, is a sea-change in Canadian work and family life. Parents can be poor for a host of reasons, but the two most powerful predictors of a slide into poverty are the loss of a job or the breakup of a marriage…”
• 637,000 Canadian children living in poverty, By Laura Stone, November 24, 2009, Ottawa Citizen: “Some 637,000 Canadian children are still living in low-income families, 20 years after Ed Broadbent and other federal politicians unanimously agreed to end child poverty, according to a new report. The rate of child and family poverty has gone down only slightly over the past 18 years, to 9.5 per cent in 2007 from 11.9 per cent in 1989 - a ‘national disgrace,’ the former NDP leader says. The 2009 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada, released by the national awareness group Campaign 2000, says the most recent figure is 637,000 Canadian children who live in a family where a majority of money is spent on such necessities as food, clothing and shelter. Low income, two-parent families would need an additional $9,400 a year to bring their income up to the poverty line, it said…”
• 1 in 10 Canadian kids living in poverty: report, November 24, 2009, CBC News: “Canada’s child poverty rate has improved ’slightly’ but the gap between rich and poor continues to grow, says Campaign 2000’s annual report card on child and family poverty. The proportion of children living in poverty declined by one-fifth between 1989 and 2007, to 9.5 per cent from 11.9 per cent, according to the report released Tuesday in Ottawa. However, 637,000 Canadian children - a number about equal to the population of Winnipeg - were still classified as poor. ‘That small change over 20 years is striking in light of an unprecedented period of growth since 1998 and in bold contrast to the growing gap between Canadian families with the highest income and those with the lowest income,’ the report stated. The group used Statistics Canada information from 2007 and said the poverty figures do not reflect the impact of the recent economic recession…”

• Mental Health Commission begins 5-year project to help homeless Canadians, Canadian Press, November 23, 2009, Brandon Sun: “A research project that takes homeless people with mental illness off the streets in five cities and provides them with a safe place to live was officially launched Monday, the first such effort by the new Mental Health Commission of Canada. The pilot study, called the At Home/Chez Soi project, involves 2,285 people who are homeless and living with a mental illness in five cities - Moncton, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Altogether, 1,325 people will be given a place to live and social services over the course of the five-year study, while the others will receive services that are currently available. One of the goals is to find out more about what works well in providing services to homeless people…”
• Research project gets mentally ill Canadians off the streets, By Laura Stone, November 23, 2009, Vancouver Sun: “Sandra Dawson woke up one morning with a bright idea. She would quit her job as a video editor in Vancouver, take all her money out of the bank and move to Seattle. There, she would have a revelation. It didn’t happen. Penniless, Dawson moved back after a few days to her mother’s basement - another manic episode that shook her once stable life…”