State of the Inner City 2009 It Takes All Day To Be Poor December 2009 ISBN: 978-1-897569-83-2 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives–Manitoba Acknowledgements This year’s State of the Inner City Report was In addition to the community diarists, a com- made possible through the collaborative ef- munity youth worker (who asked that she and forts of many individuals and organizations. her organization be kept anonymous to pro- We would like to thank the following for the tect the individuals they work with) was asked time and energy they gave to this project: to journal from a youth-advocacy perspective The member organizations of Community to offer some context to our adult view of Led Organizations United Together youth in poverty. We owe gratitude for her (CLOUT—see Appendix B for a list of coali- unique and insightful contributions, both to tion members). Special thanks to Josie Hill, this work and to the well-being of the many Executive Director of Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata youths she encounters. Centre for introducing the idea for this year’s The William Norrie Centre, the inner-city cam- research—“It takes all day to be poor”. pus of the University of Manitoba, for provid- The representatives of the Spence Neighbour- ing additional meeting space. hood Association, the North End Community Thanks to Joy Eidse and Ken Murdoch for Renewal Corporation, West Broadway Devel- their research assistance. And to our editor, opment Corporation, Immigrant and Refugee Lynne Fernandez. Community Organization of Manitoba, and Finally, many thanks to this year’s funders: Resource Assistance for Youth. United Way of Winnipeg, Assiniboine Credit Margaret Haworth Brockman and Lisa Union, Manitoba Research Alliance, and So- Murdock of the Prairie Women’s Health Cen- cial Sciences and Humanities Research Coun- tre of Excellence for their assistance getting cil of Canada. the project off the ground. Cover: It Takes All Day To Be Poor, brush pen This year’s State of the Inner City Report was on illustration board, 10”x13” by Laurie coordinated by Shauna MacKinnon. Jil Brody Green. Laurie is an eclectic visual artist from coordinated and supported the individuals Winnipeg. She has Public Art on top of Poster who shared their thoughts with us through Boards in the Exchange District and is part of their diaries. We are grateful to them for their a mural project on the rear of Red Road Lodge. willingness to contribute their personal expe- She participates and volunteers at Artbeat Stu- riences to bring this project to life. Allen, An- dio and Art from the Heart. gelica, Claudette, Janette, Sabrina, Hannah and Taryn, thank you! This report is available free of charge from the CCPA website at http://www.policyalternatives.ca. Printed copies may be ordered through the Manitoba Office for a $10 fee. i State of the Inner City 2009 Tracking Poverty in Winnipeg’s Inner City, 1996–2006 by Shauna MacKinnon There are many ways to measure progress in ditures Survey as a base, and then factoring a community. Tracking poverty rates over time in Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rates, is one way. While poverty is a much more Statistics Canada calculates both before and complex story than statistical data can tell, after-tax cut-offs for various family and com- measuring poverty over time by comparing munity sizes resulting in 35 cut-offs. Another such data can help us to track trends. For gov- absolute measure—the Market Basket Meas- ernments that have been bold enough to set ure (MBM) was introduced in 2003 by the targets, this can be particularly important as Canadian government. It takes into account a it helps them to measure their progress. broader range of essential goods and services but the net result is not much different than Census data are a tool to measure changes in the LICO. We use LICO data in this State of poverty. Census data are collected every five the Inner City Report because it is available years in Canada. Using data from the Com- to us through the consortium. munity Social Data Strategy (CSDS) and past local data networks, we are able to provide an overview of the poverty story in Winnipeg’s Inner City boundaries inner city. When we refer to the inner city we mean the The CSDS is a consortium of local data user geographic area originally defined by the networks that provides a gateway through 1980s Core Area Initiative. It is bounded on which municipalities and community-based the north by Caruthers Ave. west of the Red organizations access social data from Statis- River and Munroe Ave. east of the Red River; tics Canada and other sources. Led by the on the west by McPhillips St., Ingersoll St. and Canadian Council on Social Development, the Raglan Road; on the south McMillan Ave. and CSDS obtains and disseminates a wide vari- Marion St.; and on the east by Raleigh St., the ety of social data at a preferred rate, allowing Seine River and Archibald St. CSDS partners to share the costs and benefits Census Canada uses the boundaries shown of this vital information. CSDS data are im- in Map A (Appendix A). The highlighted ar- portant because they mine the census data and eas in the centre of the map indicate inner city provide us with deeper insights. neighbourhoods, some of which are featured in our tables. Poverty indicators The boundaries for the neighbourhoods in While Canada does not have an official pov- Map A are defined in Appendix A. erty line, the Statistics Canada Low-Income Cut Off (LICO) is most often the measure It is also worth noting the boundaries used by used. The LICO is an income threshold below the Government of Manitoba’s Neighbour- which a family will likely devote a substan- hoods Alive! (NA!) initiative. NA! is a provin- tially larger share of its income on food, shel- cial government initiative that provides fund- ter and clothing than would the average fam- ing to targeted neighbourhoods in the inner- ily. Using data from the 1992 Family Expen- city of Winnipeg as well as Brandon, Dauphin, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives–Manitoba 27 Flin Flon, Portage la Prairie, Selkirk Thompson these community-based organizations make and The Pas. The following map outlines cannot be overstated. where Neighbourhoods Alive! funding is fo- Testimonials from people who we have inter- cused in Winnipeg. viewed over the past five years through our It helps to know where support has been tar- State of the Inner City report provide insight geted because that support has made it pos- into how important organizations are to in- sible for neighbourhood renewal corpora- ner-city residents: tions (NRCs) to facilitate some important ini- …thank God for this place [without it] I don’t tiatives in these neighbourhoods. NRCs and know if I would have my daughter today other organizations form a network of serv- …It’s helped me to see [how] to live my life ices and supports that do important work on away from drugs and alcohol…. the ground. Some of these community- based …I felt so welcome when I came there and I got organizations (CBOs), like the Community to know everyone right away and it kept me Education Development Association, Ma away from getting into trouble…. Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, Native Women’s transition centre, North End Women’s Cen- …I love it…. tre, Rossbrook and others have been at work …so, I guess for me, [the CBO] was a lifesaver in the inner city for a very long time. Others, for my family. like the Aboriginal Visioning Centre, and This is a sample of what we have heard over Daniel McIntyre/ St. Matthews Community the past five years from the hundreds of peo- Association are newer. These organizations ple we have interviewed for our State of the receive support through a variety of funders Inner City Reports. As we describe further in including the City of Winnipeg, the Province this report, many people living in the inner- of Manitoba, the Government of Canada, city have very complicated lives rooted in United Way of Winnipeg, The Winnipeg poverty and oppression. For these people, Foundation and others. The contribution that CBOs make a world of difference. Map B: NA! priority districts 28 State of the Inner City Report 2009 Inner-city population and As shown in Table 1, the population in the poverty over time Winnipeg CMA grew by 4.1 percent from 1996 CCPA Manitoba began the process of meas- to 2006 while the inner-city population in- uring poverty in Winnipeg’s inner city in the creased by 11.8 percent. In 2006 the inner-city publication Solutions that Work: fighting pov- population was approximately one percent erty in Winnipeg (Silver: 2000). At that time higher as percentage of the Winnipeg CMA we had census data that showed how sig- population than it was in 1996. So, it appears nificantly the inner city had changed over that more people are living in the inner city. the 30-year period between 1966 and 1996. This is an interesting trend that can likely be During that time, Winnipeg’s census metro- attributed to a variety of factors. One expla- politan area (CMA) population grew by nation is that increasing house prices in Win- 31.20 percent, while the inner city popula- nipeg is prompting people to move to the in- tion declined by 25.5 percent. The inner-city ner-city where housing is comparatively af- share of Winnipeg’s population dropped fordable. As has been documented in previ- from 28.7 percent in 1966 to 16.3 percent in ous CCPA reports, this has been particularly 1996 (Silver, 2000, p, 27-31).