B.C. budget falls short for victims, youth and homeless, say groups
Credit to Author: Rob Shaw| Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2020 00:30:27 +0000
VICTORIA — B.C.’s provincial budget fails to give adequate funding to victims of crime, youth at risk of homelessness, people fleeing domestic and sexual violence, and women who need legal aid, say community groups.
Advocates say they are struggling to reconcile the NDP government’s public expression of empathy for vulnerable citizens with a stand-pat budget Tuesday that failed to deliver small amounts of new funding that would have made a major difference to services.
“The wait time is unacceptably long for victims for support,” Karin Kirkpatrick, CEO of Family Services of Greater Vancouver.
The organization has 18 support workers for victims embedded in police and RCMP departments across Metro Vancouver, helping those who suffer assault, exploitation and trafficking access supports. But Kirkpatrick said there aren’t enough workers or stable funding to handle all the cases.
“We say we’re supporting victims, but the impact is we’re actually not,” she said. “We’re dealing with five per cent (of cases), and that’s just domestic violence.”
Family Services of Greater Vancouver also operates numerous support programs, a 10-unit housing facility in downtown Vancouver, and detox units. But there are few services in the region specifically to help youth suffering homelessness find supportive housing, said Kirkpatrick. The organization called on government to dedicate some of its planned new shelter spaces and navigation centres for homeless youth.
“You can’t just throw a kid into a unit and expect them to be able to live,” she said. “They need counselling, and help, to access education, to access benefits.”
The representative for children and youth, Jennifer Charlesworth, said government has made some good moves to help children and youth transitioning out of care, but still lacks a dedicated youth homeless plan or a funded system of supports to help then get a post-secondary education.
A new post-secondary grant program announced in Tuesday’s budget does not specifically target homeless youth, many of whom have aged out of care. “This won’t capture a lot of kids we’re most concerned about,” said Charlesworth.
“It does worry me,” she added. “The vast majority of young people aging into adulthood don’t have the supports they need to be able to attach to post-secondary education.”
Government money also needs to link to mental health and addictions treatment supports, she said. “These things require a little bit more intensity and a plan that crosses a bunch of different ministries.”
Tuesday’s budget pledged $57 million for legal aid services. But the system is still chronically underfunded and doesn’t have enough money for those most at-risk, said Lisa Rupert, vice-president of housing services and violence prevention for YWCA Metro Vancouver.
“What we were hoping to see in the budget, and didn’t see, was more funding for legal aid for women who have experienced violence from an intimate partners and who have ongoing court issues to keep themselves and children safe,” said Rupert.
“A lot of women are denied just because they don’t have enough funding. … I’ve heard as many as one-third of women are denied.”
The lack of support mean vulnerable women, fleeing partners and trying to retain access to their children, aren’t able to get help for court and often have to represent themselves, said Rupert.
All three groups say they’ve been pleased with some of the NDP government’s social policy changes since 2017, and in general have good dialogue with the relevant ministers. But they are frustrated that half-way through the government’s mandate, it has yet to translate into actual money in key areas.
Finance Minister Carole James said she recognizes some of the services are critical.
“Is there more to do? Yes, there is,” she said Wednesday.
“I’m as impatient as everyone else. I wish that we had more resources because I can tell you that almost everything that crosses my desk as finance minister is worth funding, there’s a need somewhere. It’s not been quite three years that we’ve been in government, yet it’s a lot to fix after 16 years and so are we going to keep trying.”