Advocates taking Canada’s housing policy to UN Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star Order this photo Mike Creek, right, a formerly homeless Toronto man, and lawyer Kenneth Hale, of the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario. Laurie Monsebraaten Feb 20 2016… Continue Reading
Welfare recipients treated like guinea pigs: Goar Stacy Bowen is among the working Ontario Disability Support Plan recipients who oppose planned changes to the program. (Tony Bock / Toronto Star) Carol Goar Mar 31 2015 If everything had gone according… Continue Reading
Ontario’s Trillium Benefit: A new way to help the poor Ontario’s new monthly Trillium Benefit for low-income people brings the province one step closer to a guaranteed annual income, advocates say. Laurie Monsebraaten Jul 12 2012 About 3.5 million low-… Continue Reading
National Household Survey 2011: Ontario making progress fighting poverty Ontario rates of low-income suggest provincial efforts to reduce poverty are paying off. Laurie Monsebraaten Sep 11 2013 Dawnmarie Harriott was on welfare and living in a downtown Toronto rooming house… Continue Reading
CATHERINE PORTER Nov 19 2010 Linda Chamberlain left her dream job because it was making her broke. She’s richer earning nothing, living in her subsidized apartment and getting monthly disability cheques from the government — $260 a month richer. When… Continue Reading
News Staff Apr 1, 2010 “We accept people where they are at when they come in the door…if you’re homeless, working the streets, have addiction issues, mental health issues, family or no family, if you’re in crisis, if you’ve just… Continue Reading
Laurie Monsebraaten Nov 30 2009 Bronwen Sims calls it Ontario’s “work disincentive program.” The 35-year-old woman, who suffers from bipolar disorder and fibromyalgia, has been living in poverty on Ontario’s disability support program for the past 10 years while doctors… Continue Reading
Opal Sparks checks out what’s growing in the Earlscourt Garden near St. Clair and Lansdowne. It’s part of The Stop Community Food Centre, serving one of the city’s most marginalized and under-serviced neighbourhoods. (STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR) David… Continue Reading
Carol Goar June 19, 2009 The four-month interlude between the announcement of Ontario’s poverty reduction plan and the release of the provincial budget was a tough time for Children’s Minister Deb Matthews. The economy was deteriorating. Her government colleagues were… Continue Reading
Carol Goar Nov 12 2008 One of the delegates brought along a sleeping bag. He stretched it out and fell asleep whenever the proceedings bored him. Another lost his train of thought at the microphone, apologized, and said he might… Continue Reading