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Affordable housing, transit access part of Edmonton plan to lift 10,000 families out of poverty in five years
Elise Stolte | Edmonton Journal
Published on: May 20, 2016 | Last Updated: May 20, 2016 10:58 AM MDT
Edmonton’s plan for dealing with poverty was released Thursday with a list of 35 projects and a focus on the working poor.
The city-sponsored task force is hoping better transit access, affordable child care, secure housing and more awareness of racism will lift 10,000 families out of poverty in the next five years. It means reducing stress and giving security to those families currently working two or three jobs and still struggling to pay for food, rent and child care.
“Poverty is quiet, invisible, but it’s affecting kids,” said Anglican Bishop Jane Alexander, co-chair of the task force EndPoverty Edmonton.
The Edmonton Social Planning Council found more than 100,000 people in Edmonton were living in poverty in January 2015. Fifty-nine per cent of the children living in poverty belong to families where one or both parents are working full time.
