My Week on Welfare

23 hours ago

“If you’re on income assistance without disability you’re probably only receiving maybe $575 to maybe $625 a month. If you’re on income assistance with a disability you’re looking at $810 a month.” Gillis said most one-bedroom apartments in the city start around $600 and many don’t include utilities. He said he’s also dealt with landlords who refuse to properly maintain their buildings. ...

My Week on Welfare

1 day ago

"...at one point only a couple of units on the third floor had running water, and when those toilets were flushed raw sewage would come up in the tubs in the apartments on the lower floors.

The residents told me they were afraid to make any complaints and were told that if they withheld their rent their social assistance would be cut off."

www.halifaxexaminer.ca/city-hall/george-tsimiklis-is-the-worst-landlord-in-town/ ...

My Week on Welfare

3 days ago

"Though it was Reagan who gave her the most salient identity, the welfare queen emerged from a long and deeply racialized history of suspicion of and resentment toward families receiving welfare in the United States. Today, 20 years after welfare reform was enacted, this narrative continues to inform policy design by dictating who is “deserving” of support and under what conditions. Ending the reign of the welfare queen over public policy means recognizing this lineage, identifying how these stereotypes continue to manifest, and reorienting policy design around families as they are—not who they are perceived to be." ...