Homelessness In Canada Essay

Boundaries enclosing poverty line in Toronto increasingly widens from year to year. Differences in economic status are evident throughout the GTA due to many factoring problems. Some of which are lack of affordable housing, government aid, and the growing pressure on homeless services while oblivion from Torontonians aggravates the situation.

Homelessness is a major element of poverty in Toronto. This is majorly caused by lack of finances. Many people who live on the streets seek for temporary shelters or affordable housing options. According to the Wellesley Institute (a private research initiative seeking a healthier city), Toronto’s 2013-support and housing budget took a massive plunge from $49 million in 2012 to $24 million in 2013. This

Statistics shows that 38% of these users are children. People are hungry and relying on food charity due to their low incomes. Initially food banks were a temporary measures used to mediate food shortages, but today, it appears that they have become a necessity to the people like Laura Backs and Steve Adams – people who I interviewed in my fieldwork downtown.

Diseases are also significant issue which cannot be neglected. Some of the most experienced infections like flu, pneumonia, lice, scabies and TB. The study notes that poverty has been rising for years. In 1980s, Scarborough and other suburbs were growing poorer . It is important to note that these areas had been full of middle class families years before. Only after city houses become too expensive did they move to suburbs (Amsden 87). Suddenly the suburbs became poor and survival became difficult. In 1981, four extremely poor neighborhoods cropped in Toronto which marked a visible minority level of 20%. Twenty years later (by 2001), 23 poor neighborhoods had erected themselves, marking a 10% increase in poverty (McGowan et al 108).