BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to changes which could be coming to Milligan's Pond near downtown Barrie.
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It is extremely disheartening to see Barrie criminalizing homelessness — an issue that Barrie itself is complicit in perpetuating.
It is no secret that Barrie is one of the least affordable places to live in Canada. In fact, many sources cite Barrie as one of the top five most expensive cities for rent in Canada. Rent for a one-bedroom apartment is upwards of $1,300 per month, and zumper.com states that the average cost of rent for a one-bedroom apartment is currently $1,700 per month.
Let's compare this to average wages. An individual earning minimum wage and working full-time will take home around $1,900 per month after deductions, or $23,000 per year after deductions. This is not far off from the average.
According to Canada's last census, in 2016, the average Barrie resident earned $30,644 after taxes. This means that individuals could be spending 50 to 68 per cent of their monthly income on rent alone for a $1,300/month apartment.
How do we, as a society, allow so many people to struggle like this? There is a reason that the Ontario Living Wage Network lists the living wage (i.e. the wage individuals need to earn in order to afford the necessities such as food and shelter) for Simcoe County as $18.01/hour.
It is easy to assume this is an issue only for those experiencing mental health issues or addiction, but the truth is, a lot of us are struggling and a lot of us would not be able to afford our rents or mortgages without our roommates or partners. When we tell people they can't sleep outside, where do we expect them to go?
Barrie's housing crisis is made all the more unnecessary when you consider where Barrie's funds are allocated. The Barrie Police Service will earn $52.8 million this year. This is 2.4 per cent more than what was earned in 2020. When you divide this amount among its 362 employees, the average earnings per person is over $145,000.
Four of the top 10 entries on the Ontario Sunshine List for Barrie in 2020 belong to Barrie Police Services staff, with Barrie's chief of police the second top earner at a salary of $271,274.
When the Barrie police state that 60 per cent of their calls are for non-emergencies, and 80 per cent of their calls are non-criminal, I have to wonder why their earnings were increased while other Barrie residents cannot afford to live.
It is easy to kick people out of their camps when your income allows you to sleep safely.
Vanessa Tassone
Barrie
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