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

Welfare recipients could work for food

What would you do in their shoes? (Column, May 9)

After reading Andrew Dreschel’s column about giving food vouchers to single people collecting welfare, I have a suggestion.

Why not have a program like meals on wheels, where fresh fruit and vegetables could be distributed to those who need them, without exposing them to ridicule and scorn by labelling them as poor and destitute.

Better yet, why not have people on welfare do a little work, like graffiti removal, in order to get something in return, like free fruits and vegetables, donated by local farmers’ markets. This will get people moving and used to doing something constructive, while collecting social assistance cheques.

Hamilton spends about $2 million a year having municipal staff and community volunteers clean up graffiti; why not use some of that budget to get able-bodied social service recipients back on their feet by doing a little work to pay back society for giving them a hand up.

Mark-Alan Whittle, Hamilton