By Rev. Chris Brouillard-Coyle
GET A JOB! This phrase has been directed in one way or another to unhoused people living in the rough as though it is merely a character flaw, namely laziness, that has led to their current predicament and all that is needed is for them to apply themselves and they could be living comfortably.
Some assume it is that simple but is it really?
To what extent do we really understand what it means to live in the rough, to be homeless?
If one has no home, where do they engage in basic hygiene? Where do they shower? How do they wash their clothes? How do they keep clothes appropriate for work in wearable condition? How do they keep clothes appropriate for a job interview in pristine condition so that they can make a good first impression for potential employers? What about transportation? How do they get to a job interview if they are able to get one?
Back it up a bit more, what is required to look for work? For starters, a phone is needed to make and receive phone calls. If someone living in the rough can afford a phone, and somehow keep it safe, it still needs to be charged regularly. There aren’t many plugs to be found outside.
So much is done online right now, individuals need access to the Internet, and sufficient technological abilities to navigate through the web of resources and information to find jobs that suit their abilities.
It also takes a lot of emotional energy to look for work. How does someone who exists in survival mode, without certainty about where they will sleep that night, what they might eat, what will happen if it rains, will the encampment be raided, will they lose their belongings again, and so on, how does someone with such basic concerns find the emotional energy to look for work especially if they have continually come up empty handed time and time again?
Yes, a small handful may overcome all the barriers and find work. What happens then? Do we really believe that a job will immediately make it possible for someone who is unhoused to suddenly become housed? What about the fact that renting requires, at a minimum, first and last month’s rent (some now also require a security deposit). This assumes that one can find reasonably priced housing. Rent has been steadily rising since rent controls were loosened post-pandemic.
According to a Windsor Star article from Mar. 24 of this year (https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/windsor-rents-lowest-in-ontario-among-cheapest-in-canada), Windsor rental rates are among the cheapest in Canada. Average rent in Windsor, in February, was $1725 and there is a lack of inventory so the expectation is that costs will continue to rise. Making minimum wage (the jobs most likely available to people who experience poverty), if there were no other fees or deductions, someone would have to work over 100 hours to afford one month’s rent.
Sure, one could save by renting only a room. The average cost to rent only a room in Ontario is $1099. A minimum wage full time worker would still have to work nearly two full weeks to simply afford a place where they have a bed to sleep and can store minimal belongings.
How many of us would aspire to a life where we work those jobs where people are often treated as second class citizens and paid the bare minimum so that we can afford a room to sleep and store our belongings? How many of us want an existence where we have few physical, emotional, and financial resources to do much beyond go to a hard, low paying job, and sleep? How many who find themselves in this situation feel as though their dignity is respected?
Get a job, some will say without considering the realities of life on the streets or life doing minimum wage work. Neither circumstance is enviable.
As people of faith called to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbour as ourselves and challenged to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being (see Baptismal Covenant, BAS p.159), what more can we do to support those living in poverty and the working poor?
What more can we do to respond to human need with loving service AND transform unjust structures that contribute to people living in perpetual poverty? How can prayers AND action become signs of our faith as we seek to walk with those whose lives have been devalued by poverty?
Rev. Chris Brouillard-Coyle is a co-chair of SEJH.