Nearly 2,500 Hamilton residents say food banks saved them from homelessness
Food insecurity among Hamiltonians is tightly linked to the housing crisis, a Hamilton Food Share report shows.
Many households in Steeltown are feeling the pinch on their wallets as basics - food, rent, utilities - continue to remain unaffordable amid inflationary pressures.
In Hamilton, at least 2,460 households visiting food banks are at high risk of homelessness and are constantly forced to choose between homelessness or going hungry.
The cost to stay housed is exponentially going up when you have an income level that has remained the same for decades," said Joanne Santucci, CEO of Hamilton Food Share.
People (would) come to the food bank because they're hungry ... (but) now, they're coming because they're experiencing the risk of homelessness to a greater degree than ever before."
When asked if they'd be able to afford food and rent in the absence of a food bank, almost half of the food banks users - 46 per cent of the total 5,348 unique households - said that they would lose their shelter. Others said they would have to move, leave their pets on the street or put their partners in a medical facility.
Hunger and the risk of homelessness, a joint report by McMaster University researchers and Hamilton Food Share, looked into the impacts of food banks on their clients' housing situation. The study evaluated the rent-to-income ratio of households seeking food bank services, comparing the income with rent, utilities, heat and hydro, among other parameters.
In Canada, housing that costs under 30 per cent of income is considered affordable. But the report showed that nearly two in five households going to food banks in Hamilton - 38 per cent - were paying over 60 per cent of their household income to remain housed and face extreme risk of homelessness.
Meanwhile, 96 per cent of individuals seeking food bank services were paying more than 30 per cent of their total household income to remain housed and were at a higher risk of losing their homes."
As of September of this year, over 1,500 people are homeless in Hamilton, according to the city's homelessness tracker.
Santucci said food insecurity and housing are inextricably linked." At the emergency food banks, she said, people are losing the battles to stay housed, to sustain themselves with their basic needs."
Three in five households coming to food banks in Hamilton relied on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) as their sole source of income, making them more vulnerable to both food and housing crises.
There have not been any significant increases to either one of those two programs (ODSP and OW) ... what's going to happen is our community is going to have to come to fill that gap," Santucci said. In the long term, she suggested, pushing the provincial government to revamp the OW and ODSP to make them affordable for people relying on those incomes" would be necessary to ensure equity.
Olive Wahoush, a nursing professor at McMaster University who authored the study, pointed out that unaffordability is no longer a downtown Hamilton issue, but people from all parts of the area are seeking food bank assistance. We mapped it and saw there are pockets" in all parts of the city.
She said the research showed the daily challenges - and constant emotional storm of worry and uncertainty - that some households have been going through.
Food insecurity as an issue missing" in the mayoral discussions, she said, and urged Hamiltonians to pay attention to the upcoming municipal elections in order to speak up."
Ritika Dubey is a reporter at The Spectator. rdubey@thespec.com