Report says almost 30 per cent of Toronto families live in poverty
More Toronto families are slipping into poverty at a time when families in the rest of the GTA, the province, and the country, are seeing their economic prospects stabilize and even improve, says a groundbreaking report to be released today.
While national incomes have surged in recent years, almost 30 per cent of Toronto families — approximately 93,000 households raising children — live in poverty, compared to 16 per cent in 1990. This economic decline is a warning that despite outward signs of prosperity, the country’s largest city is falling behind, says the report by the United Way of Greater Toronto.
The dire financial plight of so many Toronto families cries out for immediate action from all levels of government, as well as business leaders, United Way president Frances Lankin said.
“This is a stunning foretelling,” she said. “The warning these numbers hold point to a broad assault on our economy and to our well-being.”
The report, Losing Ground: The Persistent Growth Of Family Poverty In Canada’s Largest City, charts median family incomes in Toronto, the GTA, Ontario and Canada. It paints a sobering picture of the city against a national backdrop of high rates of employment, strong job growth and corporate profits.
Since 2000, Toronto’s median family income after taxes and transfers of $41,100, the midpoint for all households raising children 17 and under, has remained relatively stagnant and is now $10,000 lower than the rest of Canada and almost $20,000 less than the rest of the GTA, the report says.
In short, the report says Toronto families are losing ground on every measure — in median incomes, the percentage of low-income families and the sheer number of families living in poverty.
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