Homelessness in Yellowknife: An Emerging Social Challenge. The Homeless Hub Research Report Series, Report No. 4, by Nick Falvo, 2011.

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1 This bulletin is a quick inventory of recent social research information. Its purpose is to promptly disseminate the most current external and internal research relevant to social policy. Homelessness in Yellowknife: An Emerging Social Challenge. The Homeless Hub Research Report Series, Report No. 4, by Nick Falvo, There is a considerable amount of visible homelessness in Yellowknife (NWT), yet very little third-party analysis of the situation. Throughout North America, unemployment is believed to be a major cause of homelessness (Burt et al., 2001: 8). In the Northwest Territories (NWT), an Aboriginal person e.g. a person who is Dene, Inuit or Métis is four times more likely than a non-aboriginal person to be unemployed. The limited data that does exist suggests that Yellowknife has more homelessness per capita than is generally the case in other Canadian municipalities Yellowknife s emergency shelters are crowded and understaffed and both the men s shelter and the women s shelter have just one staff person each working overnight, presenting a potentially dangerous scenario to both residents and staff There is general agreement that socioeconomic factors affecting an entire jurisdiction are major causes of an increase in the number of visibly homeless persons living in that jurisdiction at a particular time Also there is general agreement that the specific individuals most likely to experience homelessness tend to be people who, prior to becoming homeless, had more personal risk factors predisposing them to homelessness. Unequal Access to Mental Health and Addictions Services Threatens Ontarians, the Ontario Mental Health and Addictions Alliance, More than 2.5 million Ontarians live with a mental illness and/or addiction. Millions more family members, friends and co-workers - are also affected. Ignoring their needs results in a huge drain on the provincial economy. Mental illness is the most expensive cause of workplace disability, costing each Canadian employer an average of $18,000 per claim. Three per cent of people living with an untreated mental illness or addiction will face a severe and persistent disability, costing Ontario $39 billion a year in added costs and lost output. Per capita funding for community mental health ranges from $18.54 in one region to $ in another, creating wildly uneven access to services across the province Page 1

2 Funding and service inequities across the province affect Ontarians from all walks of life. The wait for supportive housing in one jurisdiction 1,097 days, nearly four times higher than the provincial average of 290 days Early intervention is crucial when treating mental illness and addictions, and supportive housing is vital for recovery and rehabilitation Need to provide locally available mental health services that afford early identification and treatment for children and youth in the context of their families and schools. Adoption from Foster Care: Aiding Children while Saving Public Money by Nicholas Zill. Center on Children and Families, Brookings, May In the current era of massive deficits, federal, state and local government agencies are seeking ways to lower expenditures and still maintain essential services. Child welfare programs represent an area where significant savings could be achieved while actually improving the life circumstances of the young people affected. The way this could be accomplished is by increasing the number of children and youth who are adopted out of foster care. Findings from a recent national survey of child health provide new evidence that adoption can save the public money while improving the life prospects of youngsters who have been maltreated in their early years. Children in foster care are children who were born to substance-abusing or mentally ill women, or youngsters who have been neglected or abused in the homes of their birth parents There are close to a half-million children in the United States who are in foster care at any one time The public costs of removing all these maltreated children from their birth families and caring for them in foster families, group homes, or institutions are substantial A recent study of a Midwest sample of young adults aged twenty-three or twenty-four who had aged out of foster care found that they had extremely high rates of arrest and incarceration. For link to the study: ion_foster_care_zill.pdf Visions for Change: Recommendations for Effective Policies on Sustainable Lifestyles, United Nations Environment Program, May This report presents the results of the study called the Global Survey for Sustainable Lifestyles (GSSL), which is one of the first global surveys on sustainable lifestyles, involving more than 8000 young adults from 20 countries. The results provide intriguing insights into the way young people think about their daily lives and activities, their aspirations for the future, and their beliefs about the role they play in influencing change. The survey was a joint project developed in the framework of the Marrakech Process on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) by UNEP and the Task Force on Sustainable Lifestyles, led by Sweden from 2005 to Page 2

3 Some key findings: Young adults from Australia to Vietnam, and Ethiopia to Egypt, consider poverty and environmental degradation to be the world s two biggest challenges, but they want more information on what they can do to be part of the solution. They also need help to understand the combined environmental, economic and social pillars of sustainable development While young people are willing to participate and improve the world they live in, and are confident that they can do so (with only 23.5 per cent of young people thinking they could not have an influence on local policies), they need guidance and opportunities to take concrete action Although most young people consider environmental degradation as one of the top two global challenges, this varies from region to region; 82.3 per cent of young people in Australia, 73.8 per cent in Vietnam and 71.1 per cent in Sweden consider environmental degradation as one of the top two global challenges, while only 42.4 per cent in Egypt, 38 per cent in Brazil and 34.2 in Argentina do so Young adults are very satisfied with their lives, with only a few of them dreaming of luxury lifestyles, but they still seek financial, social, environmental and personal security. They want to live in a clean environment, as opposed to chaotic and polluted urban areas, and be closer to nature, particularly in developing/emerging countries like Brazil, Vietnam and Lebanon Although demand for organic and local foods is strong, young people in most surveyed countries do not mention organic food when asked to describe their daily purchasing habits. For instance, in the Philippines, organic food and fair trade products were hardly mentioned and only 10 per cent of young people in Portugal thought about it when explaining their choices In many countries, the issue of sustainability is rarely mentioned as a reason for using public transport; for example, in Brazil less than 1 per cent of young people mentioned generating less pollution or preserving the environment as motivations for using public transport. Projecting the Adequacy of Canadians Retirement Incomes, Current Prospects and Possible Reform Options, By Michael C. Wolfson, No. 17, IRPP Study, Institute for Research on Public Policy, April This study projects the retirement incomes of the future elderly. Using a sophisticated simulation model, author Michael C. Wolfson is able to look at outcomes across the whole income distribution in more detail than studies of retirement income that only use average measures of income and replacement rates. Key Findings: Projections show that half of middle-earning Canadians born between 1945 and 1970 will experience a drop in living standards of at least 25 percent when they retire The phased-in options under discussion to improve Canada/Québec Pension Plan benefits would have modest effects Governments will have to look at more ambitious and novel reforms than the ones currently under consideration. Page 3

4 Quality Monitor: 2011 Report On Ontario s Health System. Health Quality Ontario, in partnership with Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, June Ontarians are fortunate to have a publicly funded healthcare system that provides a comprehensive range of services for all. To help ensure the system is working properly, the provincial government has expanded the mandate of the Ontario Health Quality Council, and to mark this transition, the organization has registered the name Health Quality Ontario (HQO) under the Business Names Act and now conducts its affairs under this name. Key findings Emergency department wait times have improved, but remain well above target for high complexity patients Long-term care wait times are still far too high, with the average applicant waiting 3.5 months for placement, but have stopped increasing for the first time since 2005 One in six people in hospital occupy alternative level of care (ALC) beds (i.e., they are in hospital even though they would be better served elsewhere) this represents a major inefficiency in the system A larger percentage of Ontarians have access to a primary care provider, but 6.5% of the province s population don t have a family doctor, 3.3% are actively seeking one and half the people who are referred to a specialist wait four weeks or longer for an appointment Ontario is getting better at completing a range of surgeries and other procedures within provincially mandated targets, despite increasing demand, but improvement is needed in cancer surgery and MRI wait times Heart attack mortality rates and readmissions have decreased, and one-third as many people per capita are admitted to hospital for angina compared to seven years ago Diabetes hospital admission rates have decreased by one-quarter, while serious complication rates (within a year) have decreased by nearly one-third compared to seven years ago, but just one-half of people with diabetes benefit from annual eye exams Congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) hospitalizations have improved only slightly, and readmission rates for these two conditions have not changed in the past four years Smoking and second-hand smoke exposure rates are declining steadily, but nearly one in five Ontarians continue to smoke and people with low incomes or less education are twice as likely to smoke as people with high incomes or a post-secondary education Obesity rates have increased and just one-half of Ontarians get enough exercise while fewer than one-half get the recommended five or more servings of fruits or vegetables every day Colon cancer screening has improved dramatically over the past four years, but many other types of screening can help the province detect additional diseases sooner, treat them earlier and improve people s survival rates Ontario is still a long way from achieving equitable health outcomes, with the poorest Ontarians 36% more likely to experience a heart attack and 32% more likely be hospitalized as a result of injuries than the richest Ontarians. Page 4

5 For link to the full report: Waiting Lists Survey by Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA s), 2011 Report on Waiting List Statistics for Ontario, May This report states the number of households on social housing waiting lists across Ontario has jumped nearly 18% to 152,077 over the last two years. Despite discussion of economic recovery, it is clear that many households are struggling to find a stable home they can afford. While employment numbers may be improving, many Ontarians are living through an uneasy economic recovery characterized by reduced work hours, lost jobs or new jobs at lower wages. Some key findings: The number of households on waiting lists province wide has increased by 10,442 households (7.4%) from the 2010 figure of 141,635 The largest increases in the number of waiting households were Toronto with 6,262 households added to that city's waiting list The report found that waiting list applications in all three groups studied - seniors, non-senior singles and families - have increased Display.cfm&ContentID=10475 Rekindling the American Dream, A Northern Perspective, by Thomas Courchene. The 2011 IRPP Policy Horizons Essay, Institute for Research on Public Policy, June In this essay, the author traces the rise and potential decline of the American Dream and US dominance on the world stage. He examines America s flagging economic and fiscal fortunes: its ballooning federal debt, the heavy reliance on foreign holdings of US government debt by China, and China s decreasing reliance on US markets for its exports. The purpose of the essay and its relevance to social policy work is that this piece looks beyond day-today challenges and considers the larger economic, social and cultural shifts on the horizon that will shape Canadian policy and decision-making in the years to come. Author's contentions: The American ethos of individualist capitalism that contributed to the rise of the US middle class in the decades immediately following the Second World War was carried too far toward winnertake-all capitalism, bringing with it greater income inequality and less social mobility. This, combined with the advent of the informatics era, which privileges skills and education over physical Page 5

6 capital, has resulted in the off shoring of many low-skilled jobs. As a consequence, the American Dream itself is in jeopardy. Author's suggestions (for shoring up US global economic leadership), among others: Improve the skills of its citizens Level the playing field for international trade Eliminate the deficit by a combination of spending cuts and tax increases For a link to the essay: A Canada-US Comparison of Labour Market Outcomes among Highly Educated Immigrants, by Aneta Bonikowska, Feng Hou, and Garnett Picot, Social Analysis Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Canadian Public Policy, Vol. 37, No. 1, March This paper compares changes in relative wages of university educated new immigrant workers in Canada and the United States over the period and finds that outcomes were generally superior in the United States. Wages of university educated new immigrants declined relative to domestic born university graduates over the study period in Canada but rose between 1990 and 2000 in the United States. The university wage premium for new immigrants was similar in both countries in 1980 but by 2000 was considerably higher in the United States. Accounting for compositional shifts did not alter these basic results. Some findings: The United States uses pre-arranged employment among immigrants (as opposed to temporary workers) more so than does Canada. About 12 percent of all legal immigrants (including children and spouses) entered the United States under a class with pre-arranged employment between 1995 and This group is very skewed towards the highly educated, and so a significant proportion of university educated immigrants may enter this category. This approach was used much less in Canada during the 1990s There is the more rapid increase in the supply of the highly educated immigrants in Canada. Over the 1990s the share of new adult immigrants who held a university degree jumped from around 25 percent to 47 percent in Canada but only from 30 percent to 34 percent in the United States The more pronounced change in language ability in Canada as compared to the United States associated with the greater shift towards non-traditional source regions in Canada Changes in unobserved characteristics among entering immigrants in the two countries, such as the possibility that there more able university educated immigrants increasingly chose the United States over Canada. This seems possible, given the relative (to the US) decline in economic outcomes in Canada and the more rapid increase in the supply of highly educated immigrants Possible declines in the quality of the degrees held by entering immigrants, which may be more pronounced in Canada than in the United States, again in light of the rapid increase in the supply and the more pronounced shift towards "non-traditional" source regions in Canada Difference in the occupational mix among the highly educated in the two countries, and in the relationship of this mix to the occupational demand for labour. Page 6

7 For non-subscribers to the Canadian Public Policy, access to the study may be facilitated by the Urban Affairs Library DiversCity Counts Report: A Snapshot of Diverse Leadership in the GTA: The third annual research report measuring diversity among leaders with a new focus on the legal sector. By Diversity Institute, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, June This report is produced by the Diversity Institute at Ryerson University on behalf of DiverseCity: The Greater Toronto Leadership Project tracked 3,330 leaders across the corporate, public, elected, education and non-profit sectors. Also included in this year's report is a first-ever look at visible minority leadership in the legal sector. While previous research has studied diversity among lawyers exclusively, the Counts report tracked 2,410 leaders in the field including judges, governing bodies, law school leaders, partners in the top 20 law firms and crown attorneys. Some of the findings: The largest increase of visible minority leaders occurred in the elected officials sector, which rose from 16.1% in 2009 to 19% in 2011, demonstrating an 18.4% change. This is due to greater visible minority representation in leadership positions on city councils and school boards following the 2010 municipal elections In the public sector, 8.8% of leadership positions are held by visible minorities, down slightly from 2010 (9.4%), but up from 2009 (8.1%) Corporate sector leadership is the least diverse. Visible minorities hold just 4.2% of leadership positions in this sector ii DiverseCity Counts 3 The best overall results are found in government agencies, boards and commissions. Twenty-two per cent of leadership positions in this sector are held by visible minorities. This represents an increase of 18.3% since 2009, and one of the most significant increases found in this study. ABCs also had the most diverse leadership in Improving the Measurement of Poverty, by Nathan Huto, Jane Waldfogel, Neeraj Kaushal, and Irwin Garfinkel, Social Service Review (March 2011), University of Chicago. This study estimates 2007 national poverty rates using an approach largely conceptualized by a 1995 National Academy of Sciences panel and similar to the supplemental poverty measure that will soon be produced by the U.S. Census Bureau. Improved features of new measurement of poverty, called Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM): Uses poverty thresholds based on expenditures for shelter, food, clothing, and utilities as well as a measure of family income that includes earnings, cash transfers, near-cash benefits, tax credits, and tax payments Page 7

8 Accounts for child care, work, and out-of-pocket medical expenses; variation in regional cost of living; and mortgage-free home ownership. Results using the SPM: The rate of poverty is estimated to be higher than the rate calculated in the traditional manner, rising from 12.4 percent in the official measure to 16 percent in the new measure The rate of child poverty is more than 3 percentage points higher The elderly poverty is nearly 7 points higher. For access to the study, seek assistance from the Toronto Urban Affairs Library. Page 8