Causes Of Poverty And Homelessness In Canada

This paper will examine and analyze the underlying causes of poverty and homelessness, the difficulties that the new immigrants experience in Canada, and what can we do in order to prevent and overcome those problems. According to the dictionary, poverty can be defined as the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. It has been an important issue for hundredths of years because it can leave people homeless and hungry. Both, Canadians and the new immigrants to Canada are experiencing many financial difficulties, and there are people who are struggling to live, to find a shelter and to provide the most basic needs to themselves and their families.

About 4.8 million Canadians are considered as poor people, 21% of single mothers

are raising their children in poverty. One in eight Canadian households struggle to put food on the table, and 62% of children who are living in the North do not have enough food to eat, or they are eating low nutritional quality foods most of the time (Canada without poverty, 2015).
Homelessness affects about 200,000 people every year, and on any given night, 30,000 people are in homeless shelters, sleeping outside or temporarily housed in places like prisons or hospitals (Levitz, 2013).

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Poverty and homelessness causes suffering because it violates Maslow’s Physiological needs, most of those people do not have the ability of providing a nice meal, or a safe shelter for themselves. It also violates the Esteem needs, because poor people mention that they are not treated equally, fairly, and respectfully in the society because of their financial status.
It occurs mostly among certain groups of people because of the discrimination and prejudice. For example, single women with children, and new immigrants to Canada are living in poverty because they are struggling to find a well-paid job. Some changes are necessary in our society, we have to employ, hire, or at least give a chance to those people to minimize the number of people who are living in really bad conditions below the poverty line, because according to statistics, one in ten Canadians are living in poverty (The Canadian press, 2011).
Analysis: Causes of poverty.
Lack of education:
Lack of education is one of the main causes of poverty. If a person is not educated, or is not able to read, write, or do some basic math, they will not be able to find a job, because nowadays education became a necessity in order to get a job in a basic workplace. Unfortunately, 42% of Canadian adults between the ages of 16 and 65 have low literacy skills and less than 20% of people with low literacy skills are employed (CLLN, 2015).
According to the statistics, Most youth Homeless are poorly educated; 56% of men, and
65% of women have grade eleven or less (Covenant house, 2015).

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High rates of unemployment and low income:

Due to different reasons, many people are unemployed in Canada which is a problem that can lead to many negative consequences. It can influence families, individuals and children. It also may increase the crime rates, divorce rates, and child poverty rates. Children may not be able to finish their education because of their financial situation and their stress which will have a huge impact on themselves and on their future. People may fall into debt problems, many find it difficult to keep up with their mortgage repayments because of long term unemployment. Unemployment rates increased to 7.1% in November 2015 (Statistics Canada, 2015), and nearly 5 million Canadians were considered low income in 2012 (Grant,

2014).
Ontario became the worst place for the educated immigrants who are looking for a job because14% of university-educated immigrants who’ve come to Canada in the last five years are without a job and that is mainly because of the language barrier, and lack of Canadian experience ( Paperny,2014).
Inequalities:
Racism is still present in Canada. Studies found that there are racial inequalities in income. People who are facing racism are most likely to be unemployed. Racialized Canadians earn an average of $30,385 per year compared to $37,332 for other Canadians, and the effect of these inequalities is that racialized Canadians are three times more likely to live in poverty than other Canadians (Galabuzi, 2012).
There are also inequalities between men and women. Women are not treated equally as men in Canadian society. Many women choose to work in par-time, contract, seasonal or temporary jobs, and unfortunately, these jobs have no security and no
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health benefits. In Canada, 66% of minimum wage earners are women, and single moms have a net worth of only $17,000 while single dads have about $80,000 (Canadian women, 2015).
Disabilities:
According to the statistics, 3.8 million Canadians are living with a disability (Statistics Canada,2013). Disabled person have a higher risk of poverty because they have limited opportunities to earn. Many of them are not completing their university level education, and they are not being hired by many companies. Adults with disabilities generally have lower median household incomes, Disabled men in the 15-to-64 age group earn $9,557 less than adult males in the same age group who don't have disabilities (Stroumboulopoulos, 2013).
Catholic response to the issue of poverty:
Christianity supports the idea of charity to overcome the injustice. Our religion calls us to be kind and generous towards the poor because by supporting and helping each other, the relationships between us becomes much stronger and better. Jesus teaches us to follow his teachings in (Matthew19:21), which states that you should sell all of your possessions, and give them to the ones who are in need. ‘’Go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come,
follow me’’.
A verse from Luke states that we have to give without expecting anything in return, because giving and expecting something in return is not considered as giving or helping at all. ‘’When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers

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