Windsor poverty at 10.8 per cent: Stats Canada report

Of 202,110 residents in Windsor, Ont. that means 24,355 people are living in poverty — that’s according to new data from Statistics Canada.

According to three local social service advocates CTV News Windsor spoke to on Wednesday, none of them were shocked by the numbers.

“Not with the current state of things, we see it here every day,” said Angela Yakonich, executive director of the Kids First Food Bank.

Yakonich said it comes at a time when usage continues to go up and donations are going down, primarily from the middle class.

“They’re struggling to make ends meet because the cost of groceries has gone up, the cost of gas has gone up, so all those donations that we used to see have gone down,” said Yakonich. “So what I think needs to happen is people with the resources to do good donating need to kind of step up.”

The United Way of Windsor-Essex isn’t surprised by the figures either.

“I don't think we'll ever eradicate poverty in the world and that's not what we're talking about here,” said CEO Lorraine Goddard, who noted the key is to focus on the root causes of poverty including cost of housing, inflation, food inflation and the pandemic.

Goddard said “generational poverty” is also a challenge.

“People who are growing up in poverty and facing so many barriers, that the opportunity for them to get out is very difficult,” she explained.

Roger Fordham, executive director at New Song Church, believes affordable housing is one of the keys to easing poverty.

“Owning a home is your biggest store of wealth for most Canadians,” said Fordham. “As that becomes harder and harder, that means that people don't have a home to go get money because they want to start a business, they don't have a home to go put their children through university.”