Poverty Reduction StrategyProvincial Housing and Homelessness Conference

March 19, 2015

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What do we mean by poverty?

Not just a lack of money, also consider… Ability to participate in one’s community Education Adequate housing Access to necessities Health status

Not just about increasing incomes or reducing costs. Also about social inclusion and being able to

participate fully in our community

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Poverty Reduction Strategy Action Plan

Reducing Poverty: An Action Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador was launched in 2006

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Key Directions of Action Plan

• Prevent poverty - Prevent people from living in poverty

• Reduce poverty - Increase the proportion of the population with incomes above poverty-level

• Alleviate poverty - Decrease the depth of poverty and improve the quality of life for people with low income

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Reducing Poverty: An Action Plan for NL

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Progress Report

• Released in June 2014• Highlights PRS initiatives• Reports on 15 indicators• Research pointed to

priority areas for future action

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Potential Priority Areas

• People living in extreme poverty • Remaining financial disincentives to employment,

particularly for persons with disabilities• Increased supports for early learning and child care • Increased supports for vulnerable youth• Address the impact of increasing costs of necessities

such as housing, food and heating on people with low income

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Engagement Process: Participation

• Emphasis on connecting with people with personal experience of poverty

• Over 1000 people participated through:– Community and government led focus groups – Virtual roundtable mini summit in Labrador– Meetings with community-based groups– On-line feedback form– Toll-free line, email and written submissions

• Summit held to review what was heard, finalize priorities and discuss concrete actions

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What we Heard: What is Working Well

• Expanded eligibility for prescription drug coverage (NLPDP)

• Supportive Living Initiative • Increased number of rent supplements • Increases to Income Support rates• Removal of financial disincentives to work • Support for community-based resources:– Women’s Centres, Family Resource Centres, Healthy Baby

Clubs, Community Youth Networks, NL Housing’s Community & Neigbourhood Centres , Kids Eat Smart, and Jumpstart

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What we Heard: Gaps

• Income Support rates too low/ indexation ended• Reduced help to navigate access to programs• Limited in person contact with government staff• Dental coverage for adults and youth• Not enough focus on older individuals (55+) • Affordable housing• No limit on rental increases/regulation of boarding

houses & bedsitters• Supportive services for mental health and addictions

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What we Heard: Gaps

• Inclusion supports for adults with disabilities• Government programs not being coordinated with each

other • Promotion of government programs /difficult application

processes• Supports for vulnerable families/parenting supports• Life skills • Poor supports for major life transitions (out of care, prison,

leaving high school, having a child)• Adult learning, literacy & training supports for individuals

over 30

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What we Heard: Potential Priority Areas & 2006 Goals

• Confirmation of priority areas & importance of existing goals: – People living in extreme poverty and mental health and addictions

came through as over-arching themes/guiding principles– Need a goal focused on housing

• Other areas/themes/emphasis:– Supports for families– Access, awareness and coordination of services– Transportation– Dental services and prescription medication– Education for adults (ABE, GED, training)– Inclusion– Older adults (55+)

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What we Heard: Most Important Thing Government Can Do

• In person service for Income Support clients & others with low income

• Increase and index Income Support rates • Wrap around supports (for youth, complex needs,

mental health and additions)• Cap on rental increases/enforced standards for

rentals & boarding houses/bedsitters • Build on work to remove financial disincentives for IS

clients to work and better support education while raising IS rates and indexing them

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What we Heard: Most Important Thing Government Can Do

• Add prevention back to the role of CYFS• More resources for early diagnosis and treatment of

learning disabilities and mental health issues• Promote government programs and services to the

people who need them and simplify application processes

• Individualized supports for people with disabilities• Teach life skills in K-12 (budgeting, cooking nutritious

meals, mental health)• Better support all students to finish high school

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What we Heard: Additional Feedback

• PRS vision is powerful and needs to remain a focus• Guiding principles need to be a focus for all

government departments but language needs to be improved (“consideration of” weak). Additions:– One that recognizes link with mental health & addictions– Focusing on extreme poverty

• More focus on prevention and early interventions as well as links between poverty and disability, mental health, additions and violence against women– Education is key to prevention (improved access & supports)

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What we Heard: Priorities

• Housing (affordability, appropriateness, rental regulations)• Increased supports for vulnerable youth• Increased supports for vulnerable families with children • Improved supports for people to work • Improved access to, awareness and coordination of

government services • Improved access to necessities (transportation, food, adult

learning & literacy, prescription medication & dental services)

Keep guiding principles in view, including extreme poverty and mental health and addictions

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Priority Area: Housing

• Affordable housing• Appropriate housing (accessible, safe, size)• Residential Tenancies Act (gaps around boarding

houses/bedsitters, rental increases)• Substandard housing

– Enforcing rental standards– Maintaining owner-occupied housing (IS clients, seniors) including

energy efficiency• Rent supplement program inflexible and landlord driven• Supported housing/wrap around services• Discrimination against IS clients, students, youth• Safe houses/transition housing/shelters in rural communities

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Proposed Actions from the Summit: Housing

• Not just a house – supports and access for living independently (wraparound services)– Life skills (e.g. budgeting, food/nutrition)– Accessing government services– Mental health and addictions

• Prioritize housing first approach • Increased collaboration and more client focused service

delivery (“case management”; “community integration”)• More affordable housing (incentives for landlords

/incentives and requirements for builders)• Need for appropriate size, affordability, access

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Proposed Actions from the Summit: Housing

• Regulation, protections and control (rental standards)• Safety, maintenance inspections (quality standards)• Maintenance issues in NL Housing stock• Better system for energy rebates/energy retrofits• More targeted support for seniors housing• Location – mixed market (avoid ghettoizing); access to

services; rural moving to service centres (health care, etc.)

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Priority Area: Increased Supports for Vulnerable Youth

• Parenting supports/ maintaining family relationships• Transition from being in care of CYFS/child medical services• Government treating 18 year olds as independent adults• Re-engaging individuals who have dropped out of school• Supports for youth who apply for Income Support • Mental health and addictions• High suicide rate of Aboriginal youth in Labrador• Need for culturally appropriate supports for Aboriginal youth• Life skills/safety• LBGTQ• Housing/hidden homelessness

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Proposed Actions from the Summit:Vulnerable Youth

• Transition programs from child to adult (i.e. providing supports based on need, not age. Support and programs need to continue for older youth)

• Core funding and resources to existing organizations• LGBTQ supports in urban and rural; in and outside of

school• CYFS needs resources to deliver proactive and

preventative programming/support transitions (not just to Income Support)

• Targeted programs for parents, families, and school staff in supporting vulnerable youth, esp. those with mental health and addictions issues

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Proposed Actions from the Summit:Vulnerable Youth

• Social workers in schools• Create alternatives/processes for youth at risk

of dropping out, and increase supports to re-engage those who have dropped out of school

• Provide and promote supports to students with additional needs (i.e. deaf youth, youth with learning disabilities) outside the classroom

• Need a comprehensive awareness of the resources and needs around mental health (across community and government)

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Priority Area: Increased Supports for Vulnerable Families with Children

• Pre/post-natal support, including breastfeeding• Developmental opportunities/early learning• Parenting supports/life skills• Prevention & supportive role to families by CYFS• Early diagnosis and support for learning and other disabilities• Schools need resources to support non-academic needs• Social and recreational opportunities• Child care

– Service sector/non-9 to 5 work– Communities with no regulated care– Cost

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Proposed Actions from the Summit:Vulnerable Families with Children

• Improved communications of available programs (including accessible materials for minority groups)

• Address the barriers that keep young and/or single parents from accessing support systems

• Adopt a community in schools model/ community access to schools

• Address the “summer gap” in learning and counselling support

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Proposed Actions from the Summit:Vulnerable Families with Children

• Increase supports in rural and remote areas, e.g. low / no-cost programing, transportation, etc.

• Increase access to healthy food (e.g. provision of food supplements, school breakfast programs, cooking / nutrition education)

• More supports for families of children with disabilities• Changes within CYFS (recruitment and retention strategy

for staff, shift from enforcement role to supportive role, change stigma, support for youth to stay in their communities)

• Improved access to sports and recreation programs (e.g. subsidies, transportation, low / no-cost activities)

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Priority Area: Improved Supports for People to Work

• Income Support rules/ policies• Making sure people are financially better off by working• Transition from Income Support to work• Access to ABE/GED/training for non-EI eligible adults• Minimum wage• Disability- related supports• Child care• Job maintenance support (personal issues, addictions,

mental health)• Transportation & prescription drug coverage

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Proposed Actions from the Summit: Improved Supports for People to Work

• Individualize programs and supports• ABE/GED processes are not currently accessible• Increase investments in comprehensive childcare (esp. rural) so all

children have quality childcare• Address the ways in which disability supports, EI, and IS are disincentives

to work• Expand current disability supports to look at accessibility in general,

including mental health• Address gap between “minimum” and “living” wage • Increase investment and focus on career planning and career counselling• Better awareness and communications efforts re: government programs

(coverage, supports available, how to apply)

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Priority Area: Access, Awareness and Coordination of Services

Access and Awareness• Government does not promote its programs• There is no one to call if you have a need - no general number/

info and referral line (211)• Application processes difficult/appeal processes unclear• Toll free numbers & online only access points

– lack of in person service frustrating– limited to no government in presence in rural areas

• Information is not in plain language• Staff focused on applying rules rather than helping & too

specialized• Waitlists/lack of prioritization

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Priority Area: Access, Awareness and Coordination of Services

Coordination• Must go to a different door for every program• No social worker/case worker to help anymore• Criteria for programs often at odds with each other• Difficult to get all the supports needed at one time• Government staff do not know about programs in other

departments/divisions or delivered by community• Rules of one program mean if you avail of another you may be

worse off – confusion/lack of trust/no one can confidently answer combined impacts

• Privacy rules have greatly reduced staff’s ability to help

Proposed Actions from the Summit: Access, Awareness and Coordination of Services

• Better communication and advertising of programs and services (make it attractive!)

• Consider more user-friendly websites within government (e.g. for youth); looks at apps and social media to increase awareness of services

• Need central place for information (e.g. one-stop shop, a navigator, 211), with personal contact with a human being

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Proposed Actions from the Summit: Access, Awareness and Coordination of Services

• Better coordination of services: reduce / eliminate government red tape (e.g. approval processes and wait times for supports)

• More clarity around issues of privacy and informed consent

• Online forms for services are not accessible to many vulnerable and rural populations

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Priority Area: Improved Access to Necessities

• Transportation• Nutritious food• Dental Services• Prescription medication• Adult Learning, Literacy (ABE, GED), training• Income Support

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Transportation

• Medical transportation – focus was for travel within local area

• For social and recreational activities (all ages)• For shopping (groceries, prescriptions,

necessities)• For employment• Lack of accessible transportation • Income Support clients: bus passes/ local

transportation

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Nutritious Food/Health eating

• High cost of fruit/veg, milk and meat• Low quality of fruit and veg in rural & remote

areas• Need for more education on healthy eating• Supports for pre/post-natal nutrition &

education/ breastfeeding• Importance of school breakfast, lunch & after

school snack programs

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Dental Care

• Lack of preventative care/ cleaning• Suffering of people who can’t afford extractions • Bad teeth is an employment barrier • Health-related impact of poor oral health, including

mental health• NLPDP adult and youth dental components:– Amount covered not enough for most services– People with low income don’t have money to pay up

front to dentists– Lack of dentists who will treat NLPDP clients

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Prescription Medication

• NLPDP access plan a huge improvement but:– Co-pays too high & uncertainty of cost – For individual and families with high drug costs they

do not automatically get considered for Assurance Plan

– Application processes difficult and decisions not explained

– Many medications not covered– Many doctors do not want to write notes, look in to

what medications are covered under the plan

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Adult Education

• Long waitlists for ABE/GED (particularly for those with no high school)

• Assessment of learning disabilities• Part time studies not well supported• Costs such as textbooks and transportation a barrier• Child care not covered full time – makes studying and

access difficult• For non-EI eligible, hard to get training covered (nothing for

adults)• Rules around maximum length of time that can be spent per

credit

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Income Support Program

• Rates not keeping up with inflation• Housing amounts do not come close to actual costs• No support for home owners to maintain home• Transportation assistance appears to have been

reduced• Support for children to go back to school/ participate in

social and recreational activities• Cannot meet with staff/ no consistency/ no one to help

with other needs (health, addictions, parenting supports, etc.)

Proposed Actions from the Summit: Improve Access to Necessities

• Wide range of general & specific suggestions– Incentives for people in rural areas who car pool

or volunteer to drive others– Provide upfront support for medical travel–More community gardens, greenhouses and

farmers’ markets– Ensure Income Support rates cover actual cost of

housing and index rates

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Proposed Actions from the Summit: Improve Access to Necessities

–Bulk buying clubs and capping cost of nutritious food– Increased dental coverage for adults

(raise limit to $350 and cover cleanings)–Reassess prescription drug program

copays to consider affordability–Offer alternative learning

environment/approach so young people finish school 40

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Contact the PRS Division

• Phone (709) 729-1792• Toll-free feedback line 1-866-883-6600• E-mail povertyreduction@gov.nl.ca