Housing insecurity/precarity and food insecurity are often intertwined. Food insecurity, according to PROOF, is “inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints.” Housing insecurity, on the other hand, includes several challenging circumstances such as “having trouble paying rent, overcrowding, moving frequently, or spending the bulk of household income on housing.” Examining these definitions, it becomes evident that housing and food insecurity share a common denominator of inadequate income. Low-income mothers with infants face particular income challenges in Canada in that they are often drawing maternity and parental leave, which is either 55% of their income for 12 months or 33% of their income for 18 months; working for minimum wage; or they may be recipients of income/social assistance (welfare), in which case their incomes are inadequate for both housing (because incomes are far below the poverty line) and infant feeding, regardless of what type of feeding they do.
While housing is a fixed monthly expense, food budgets are flexible, sometimes providing the only area to scrimp to pay other bills. With housing costs increasing but wages and welfare rates remaining largely stagnant, this poses a problem. It expands reliance on food charities, such as food banks, which often cannot meet the full needs of the family. It also increases the chance that low-income families, already struggling, will wrestle with both housing insecurity and food insecurity. While rents soar, home ownership becomes increasingly out of reach for lower-income families. Homeownership is associated with a marked decline in rates of food insecurity.
Although housing insecurity and even being unhoused in rural areas can be less visible than in urban areas, these issues persist in rural settings too. Factors like “small town dynamics and discrimination” contribute to housing insecurity and can be part of the difficulty in obtaining stable shelter for low-income mothers and their babies, particularly single mothers. Housing insecurity can substantially impact mental and physical health, in addition to the food insecurity that often accompanies it.
Alisha Christie, Community Researcher on the Homeless No More Project at Acadia University, has conducted a recent count of unhoused/precariously housed individuals and found that of those 231 who accessed service organizations between West Hants and Digby, Nova Scotia, 91 have dependents (124 children and youth under the age of 18). Christie emphasizes the “housing first approach,” which focuses on obtaining permanent housing quickly and providing other services once a person is housed. According to an engagement session in October 2022 with organizations serving precariously housed or unhoused individuals, the top asks for the government were more long-term and core funding so that they were not competing with other organizations, as well as policy which considers the equity of individuals, such as those in receipt of income/social assistance (welfare). Christie states that people need to “broaden the definition of what homelessness is and the experience of being precariously housed,” particularly in rural areas, where it is less observed. “We have to re-imagine how we care for our community and how we perceive care…It’s our neighbours, the world is intense and hard right now, and it doesn’t take much to be at risk…all of these numbers represent an individual and a life,” says Christie.
Addressing housing insecurity and providing affordable housing in rural areas can also help to resolve food insecurity. These issues do not exist in a vacuum and must be addressed with the other in mind. Stable and affordable housing for mother-baby dyads creates an opportunity to obtain more and better-quality food, and a chance to thrive.
Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash.
