Christmas 2021 is upon us
By: Kendall Worth!
Christmas 2021 comes at a time when we still have COVID-19 with us, and an increasing homeless population here in Halifax. This story is about how welfare recipients I am in-touch with are spending Christmas, given new COVID restrictions. Nova Scotia has reduced gathering limits and put other restrictions back in place.
But first, this Christmas other things also come into play!
I want to take a moment to remember this article, posted on December 21st 2018. In this piece I talk about the Christmas wish list for welfare recipients. Even though this article was posted3 years ago, the Christmas Wish in this letter remains the same year after year after year. This Christmas wish will remain the same until welfare recipients have a better system of support (GBLI, increased rates, increased housing rates!) from Community Services and more money to live on. Some of those original wishes?
Access to opportunities to socialize, especially when affordable places (meaning the soup kitchens and drop-ins) are closed on evenings, weekends, and holidays.
Better access to mental health supports and services.
More employment opportunities for those of us who are able to work.
Telephones for those of us who right now cannot get approved for the telephone allowance through Community Services.
New clothing for those of us who have cloths that are looking as old as the hills.
Opportunity to repair past friendships with friends and family members whom we once had good relationships with and as far as we know are still alive and want nothing to do with us.
This year, 2021, there are
two new items to add to that Christmas wish list:
#1 – More newer and better Housing stock/ affordable housing for the homeless.
#2 – For COVID to go away – “the Pandemic is wearing us down” they say.
Now I want to remember back to the story I wrote in October 2020. In that story I covered how several welfare recipients were preparing for Christmas, and their hope that it would be different in 2020. This year in 2021, the welfare recipients I am regularly in touch with are all saying this story is still relevant this Christmas because many of them are up in the air about whether or not they are going to be spending time with family this year.
This story here “” speaks to the reality of Christmas 2020. COVID fear and restrictions make everyone lonely but being on social assistance makes it harder. At Christmas, Christians are suppose to be giving, and spreading forgiveness, comfort and joy. Christmas is a time of year where things like stigmatizing the poor should be considered unexpected. After all it is all about the meaning of the season.
So now, in light of the Province’s return to COVID restrictions it turns out that that many welfare recipients, will be spending Christmas the same way they spent it in 2020 - alone. This includes myself. I will once again not be spending Christmas with my brother and his family as I did in non- COVID times. Others, I am in touch with, have, reasonably, cancelled plans to go visit family members for the Christmas holidays. The good news for me, however, is the same people who invited me to their home last Christmas have done so again this year.
Of course, many I advocate for, even in non-Covid times, are lonely and have no-where to go for holidays. In some/if not in many cases, COVID added fuel to the fire of Social isolation. This year in 2021 many of the lucky one were saying “we will see what the COVID situation is like at the time of Christmas as to how we spend this year”
The 20% lucky ones, with some where to go, are saying this Christmas is different from last Christmas in that they are they are happy that the gathering limit has increased. Because the gathering limits have increased to 20 (from 10 people last year) they feel it is much harder for them to tell their families this Christmas “We do not feel comfortable spending Christmas with you this year” .
So with the advent of the Omicron variant and a record number of cases, combined with an increase in the homeless population, there is a lot to think about this Christmas.
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