By Karen Nickel
Dialog Reporter

Laurel Broten, the minister responsible for women’s issues, was too busy to meet with anti-poverty and anti-violence advocates who arrived at her office demanding she intervene and stop the provincial government’s plan to cut the Community Start-Up Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB).

The CSUMB is a fund for those on Ontario Works (OW) or Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), requested in emergencies or dire financial need, but as Norma Jean from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), told the crowd, “When you’re poor, everything is a financial need emergency”.

Beginning January 2013, the government plans on cutting the CSUMB and transferring 50 per cent or $67 million of the costs to the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI), to be administered by local municipalities. Funded by block payments from the province, the money will be available to low income people, not just those on OW or ODSP. This means only half the money will be available with more people applying for it. When the money for the year is gone, there will be no additional funds available, even in an emergency. A bigger problem is municipalities do not have to provide a plan for the proposed CHPI until 2014; a full year after the cut!

Angela Nolan,55, is from the group Women Speak Out, and on ODSP due to a stroke that ended her career as an analyst. On ODSP, she struggled to pay $170 monthly for hydro; she couldn’t do it, and her power was shut off during February. Through the CSUMB she was able to pay the arrears to turn her heat and lights back on. She worries about the growing 55+ population and whether they will have access to the same benefits. “It would be a crying shame”, she said, “For these people to not have a safety net”.

Presently, CSUMB provides women with $799, or $1500 if she has dependants. Allowable expenses are: buying furniture, or clothing items; replacing items lost to bed bug infestations; moving expenses to a safe apartment; or paying arrears to prevent evictions and keep utilities. Women leaving institutions like hospitals, or incarceration, rely on this fund to secure housing and support her integration back into the community.

The CSUMB is crucial for women escaping violence; it provides money towards first and last months rent to relocate into safe housing with their children. Susan Young, from Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses argued that this cut by the government “forces women to choose between homelessness and going back to violence”.

As the minister responsible for women’s issues, who recognized November as Woman Abuse Prevention Month, I would have thought Laurel Broten could have pencilled them in.

You can ‘Stop the Cuts to the Community Start Up Maintenance Benefit’ go to: www.ocap.ca and then call, fax, write, email, or drop by Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues, Laurel Broten’s office and demand she ‘Stop the Cuts’ that cause violence for poor women and their children. (We hear she hangs out more in the Ministry of Education offices than at the Women’s Directorate Office). Ministry of Education, 22nd Floor, Mowat Block, 900 Bay Street, Toronto, ON, M7A 1L2, Email: lbroten.mpp@liberal.ola.org. Phone: 416-325-2600, Fax: 416-352-2608