LETTER: Poverty industry perpetuates problem

re: Too many children still growing up in poverty (Community Columnist, Aug. 23)
In Tom Cooper’s column respecting poverty, he claims 29,000 Hamilton children are living in poverty and don’t get enough to eat.
After doing some research, I found out this claim is an extrapolation from statistics at least three years old.
Fast forward to today, Ontario Works caseloads for July 2012 were 13,337 individuals and families, down 241 cases (1.8 per cent) versus June 2012, but down 829 cases (5.6 per cent) versus July 2011.
As anyone can see, poverty has been reduced by almost six per cent in the last year.
Obviously people are getting jobs which allow them to live, work and play, to eat healthier food, to live a frugal life or reach for the stars.
The real problem in Hamilton is the poverty industry — groups that get thousands of dollars in funding to talk about the problem, even it doesn’t exist to the extent they claim, or as harsh and deep.
For a group that relies on the existence of poverty, it’s not hard to see the self-perpetuation in this and the reason why a $100,000 grant was not given to Tom’s outfit this year.
Only a full-time job can really lift someone out of poverty, in a real and effective way.
A hand up, not a hand-out.

Mark-Alan Whittle
Hamilton Mountain