The Bank of Canada raised the benchmark interest rate to 4.75% Wednesday morning, an increase of .25 per cent.

Rising interest rates are the latest blow in the rough stretch for those living in poverty, said VCC's executive director Meaghon Reid.

“In my 20 years working in the social service sector, I have never seen anything like this. We can expect the interest rates to keep going up at this rate, so what are we doing to make things smoother for everybody, and in this case Calgarians, because we are on the edge of the cliff and we’re rapidly falling off. We have over 81,000 households that need affordable housing, that means they are paying more than 30% of their income on their housing. That really has a huge mental health effect on people in terms of being able to even enjoy the daily things of life if you’re constantly worried about what’s coming at me next in terms of another unexpected expense,” said Meaghon.

Read the full article: Calgarians struggling to pay rent dealt another blow with latest interest rate hike