CBC News: Prosperous B.C. has grim child-poverty record
Citing data from Statistics Canada, the BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition says 23.9 per cent of B.C. children were in households living below the federal agency's low-income cutoffs for 2003, the latest year for which figures are available.
That compares with a national average of 17.6 per cent...
To give you an idea of what kind of figures the report draws from, the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) for a 3-person household in Victoria for 2003 was $30,552. The LICO varies depending on the population of the area where the household is living. Basically, if a family is spending more than 54.3% of its income on food, clothing and shelter, they are classified as being below the poverty line.
My guess is that the biggest reason for BC being in this position is our outrageous housing prices. In the time that hubby and I have been together, we have watched starter home prices climb from about $190,000 to $300,000 and more. Rents have also risen correspondingly.
I can also tell you that in the past five years, we have dipped below that line at least once, but thanks to friends and family and some creative frugality on our part we made it through. Our credit kinda sucks, but these are the high costs of living in "Beautiful B.C." I guess.
**For more info: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coallition Poverty Fact Sheet, 2005 (PDF).
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