—y-——

"Human beings can only take

advantage of their abilities and
resources as human beings -

if they are treated as human,

if they feel human."

By A SOCIAL WORKER

E ARE accustomed to

‘V think of North America,
and even of Canada, as
lands of “affluent society” and
yet a study recently completed

by the Canadian Welfare Coun-

cil indicates misery and suffer-
ing, frustration and despair
among our own people and in
Our major cities.

“Urban Need in Canada” is a
‘Case report on the problems of
families in four Canadian cities:
One of these is Vancouver, a
relatively new city, a thriving
Seaport, and the major popula-
tion centre of “beautiful Bri-
tish Columbia.”

Beginning as_ frontier town,
Vancouver developed quickly
but without much planning. So
far as the poor are concerned,
there is no one slum area for
them to inhabit—they live in
the “collar” area around False
Creek, side by side with indus-
try and shipping; they live in
a variety of “pockets” in East

and South Vancouver, as well:

as in the suburbs of the metro-
politan area.

The housing available to the
Poor here is not old and made
of stone as in Eastern cities: it
is made of wood, damp and rot-
ting wood, with holes in walls,
floors and roofs which are not
Worth fixing from the landlord’s
point of view since the value
Of such housing is only in the
land it occupies.. We do have

‘some subsidized housing in
Vancouver but the need is -

much greater than the apart-
ments available, so that the
Waiting lists are long and dis-

/

couraging. People with large
families and small incomes must
take what they can get.-

This report is concerned
mainly with families, but does
mention in passing that there
are also many single people and

aged couples whose income.

places them “below the poverty
line’: these people too live in
crowded tenements without con-
veniences or even comfort.
When illness strikes, or age
renders them unable to manage
alone, they are frequently

. forced to live in boarding and

nursing homes, where. only the
barest needs are met,

Welfare services in British

Columbia are still grossly in-~

adequate, both in financial
terms and as regards the plan-
ning and counselling services
which are an important part of
rehabilitating people in diffi-
culty.

Financially, the Social Assis-
tance rates are today more than
20 per cent below the minimum
household needs and for the
larger families the gap is even
greater. Furthermore, though
the Social Assistance Act speci-
fies, as its intent, that occupa-
tional training, retraining, coun-
selling services and “generally
any form of aid necessary to
relieve destitution and suffer-
ing” shall be given, in practice
many of these things are not
available because of the city’s
narrow interpretation of the
act, and because of the short-
age of social workers hired to
assist in providing these ser-
vices. Many people see, their

social workers rarely and do
not receive the help to which
they are entitled because their
needs are not made known.

Free health services are given
only to those who are “poor
enough” and to those who are
not just poor but “worthy”, that
is, to those who are considered
“unemployable”. People who
are unemployed receive only
minimum financial assistance,
even when social service depart-
ments are well aware that no
jobs are available. The only

_ alternative for the marginally

employed or unemployed is to
attend the out-patient clinics at
the General Hospital, where
line-ups are long and seeing the
doctor takes the best part of a
day.

Improved housing, © welfare
and health services would be
desirable, and there is some
indication that these improve-
ments will eventually be forth-
coming. However, as the Wel-
fare Council report makes clear,
the real need is for more jobs:
only if income is steady and
adequate can we expect to begin
to deal with the problems of
urban poverty, only if children
can be brought up in a home
which is self-supporting, not
“living on charity”, can we be-
gin to deal with the social and
emotional problems which grow
out of material and emotional
deprivation.

Human beings can only take
advantage of their abilities and
resources as human beings if
they are treated as human, if

they feel human, The whole es-
sense of welfare programs ag
they are presently laid down is
to do things “for” people; people
grow as they are able to do
things for themselves.

The job situation in Vancou-
ver and the surrounding munici-
palities is very limited and sea-
sonal in nature. Of the families
studied, many were earning rea-
sonable hourly wages even for
semi-skilled and unskilled work,
but the percentage of time
worked in a year was so small .
that’ they were constantly
obliged to fall back on Unem-
ployment Insurance and then
Social Assistance to make ends
meet.

Constantly hunting for a new
job, endlessly changing from
wages to Assistance and back
again is a disheartening busi-
ness, and the eligibility require-
ments for Assistance are not
such as to make the switch
easy or convenient. The lack of
a job, the experience of con-
stantly losing and changing
jobs, the unpleasantness of ap-
plying for “relief”, do nothing
to increase a persons’s self es-
teem or self confidence. Child-
ren too respond to their parents’
feelings of worthlessness and
discouragement.

The only real assistance for
families is to provide more jobs;
welfare can then concentrate on
providing services for the tem-
porarily or permanently unem-
ployable persons, many of

‘whom are the unfortunate pro-

duct of our lack of social plan-
ning in the past.

July 2, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7

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