Ideas into Action Part 4

Thursday, September 7th, 2006
We have two ideas that we generated at the beginning of this series left to explore.

Increase low wages of income earners so homelessness can be overcome - work should be valued for its contribution to society and the work itself should be valued. Many jurisdictions have brought in living wage ordinances that attempt to ensure that all employers are paying a wage or salary that is sufficient to meet basic needs of the employee and family. The research indicates that there has been a very minor impact on ther local economies and a significant impact on the resiliance of the wage earner from these programs. If an employer pays less than a living wage, it means that all taxpayers are subsidizing that business because if the wage earner isn’t making enough to survive they are forced to utilize publicly funded social services. It seems outrageous to me that we would want to subsidize shareholder profits for some large box store. This idea has significant bearing on the issue but would require a long time line and collaboration with other groups and authoriites. It is a project that Vibrant Communities Calgary is spearheading along with 40 other stakeholders but the impact on homeless families and working poor has not been significantly changed yet. This action is one probably best left to a large coalition.

Offering to house a homeless family in your home - this idea may make you uneasy (for some legitimate and not so legitimate reasons) but it is a very effective form of community participation. If 1/4 Calgarians are liviing below the poverty line, that means that 3/4 are not. If 60 families reached out to the 60 homeless families with an offer to share their home, the issue would be on the way to being solved. Of course both the host and guest families would need to establish guidlines and expectations but the idea offers immediate, concrete and relevant action to the issue. 9/9

While I would like to recommend that we all embrace the last idea/action, it seems unlikely that we are ready for that ‘big’ of a step into public participation. I will hold off making a suggestion as to which idea we should choose until Part 5, next week.