By Kendall Worth
Thanksgiving 2024 has come and gone, and this past Thanksgiving we saw a major increase in the homeless population here in Halifax. Many income assistance recipients I spoke with recently are speculating that their Christmas celebration will look a lot like their Thanksgiving did.
In my BLOG post dated October 9th, 2024 was meant to give my readers a heads up that Thanksgiving would be a difficult time for many. That same post, I talked about how much more expensive Thanksgiving would be for everyone this year - including people who are housed.
If you were to read my October 9th BLOG, you will find that I included some current grocery prices of turkeys and other Thanksgiving dinner fixings. Adding up the cost, my rough estimate was that it would cost about $67.45 for one or two housed people to host Thanksgiving dinner in their own home this year.
As I reported in my June 22nd, 2024 BLOG Post, the Standard Household Income assistance rates are now $974.00. However, for the large population of income assistance recipients here in Halifax, after rent and bills are paid, there is no money left for Thanksgiving dinner.
Income assistance recipients themselves tell me that, while both Thanksgiving and Christmas have an impact on their mental health, the feelings and isolation they feel at Christmas is more complex.
To prove the point I am trying to get at here, I am going to take a moment to go back to my article from October 26th, 2020 in the now-folded Nova Scotia Advocate. While that article was written during peak COVID times (when a lot of extra planning was involved), this article points out that there are always challenges during holiday periods for people living in poverty.
As my BLOG post dated November 25th 2023 points out, the complex mental health issues that housed income assistance recipients face at Christmas do not only arise on Christmas Day but also the many days that lead up to Christmas after Thanksgiving. As reported in my article in the Nova Scotia Advocate from December 31st, 2017, this anxiety gets worse during the month of December and continues until the big day.
Another major difference between 2022 and now is that income assistance recipients in Nova Scotia received an extra $250 then.
Following this BLOG post, I plan to write a letter to Premier Tim Huston about why income assistance recipients should still be receiving that extra $250.
In the meantime, even though income assistance recipients do not know what made the government decide to provide them an extra $250 in 2022, my community believes it is because the government knew that income assistance recipients were having a difficult time adjusting to normal life following the lock-downs and restrictions.
And by the way, this Christmas, let’s not forget about the homeless population and how we can include them in our Christmas celebrations. This should be a priority for non-profit organizations that are there to help them.
Last year at Christmas, a couple of non-profit organizations did host Christmas dinners for people who were lonely and had nowhere to go. Income assistance recipients are asking them to do this again this Christmas, especially after this didn’t happen at Thanksgiving. Or if any organization did, nothing was advertised for Thanksgiving.
Before COVID, people living in poverty felt that these dinners were important to their mental health during the holidays.
The reason the holidays are so important and unlike regular weekends is because, without extra money, and without invitations to events and family dinners, the situation makes them feel like they have no choice but to abandon the holiday traditions they had as kids. These holidays are supposed to be about social celebration. You cannot enjoy and experience social celebration while you are by yourself.
Let's work together so that the homeless and people living in poverty have a merry Christmas!
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