We do the poverty snapshot to understand how people experience poverty and what policy makers can do to help. Last year’s report focused on the effects of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement. This year, the gap in information in a changing context was something we grappled with. The five-year census will be released in February 2022, and the Income Survey data — where our poverty rates come from — is always two years behind. But in 2021, we wanted to know more, so we looked to additional sources to give us a clearer picture of where we are, where we’re headed, and how we can help build a just recovery.
From that research, we learned that affordable housing waitlists are long and housing is getting more expensive. We learned that food bank use is at an all time high and food prices are rising at the highest rate in nearly 20 years. We also learned that a lot of people are receiving effective government supports and coming out of poverty. So, who is falling through the cracks, what solutions will prevent or seal the cracks, and how can we better address the root causes of poverty?