Jagrup Brar Welfare challenge moves to Vancouver Only $21.45 left in the kitty
By Veeno Dewan
Jagrup Brar speaks at a media press conference before moving to his new accommodation in Vancouver’s Down-town Eastside where the Surrey-Fleetwood MLA is spending the final two weeks of his Welfare Challenge to live on $610 a month. January 17. Photo by Chandra Bodalia.
An arctic-like cold snap comprising snow and freezing temperatures gave MLA Jagrup Brar an even colder, unkind welcome to Vancouver’s Down-town Eastside on Jan 17. Brar moved into the final two weeks of his quest to see if he could live on the monthly $610 welfare payment issued by social services.
The Surrey Fleetwood NDP MLA began his month long experiment with the poverty action group Raise the Rates on Jan. 1. After living in a rented room in a house in Surrey for the first two weeks and scrimping by on a meagre food budget, Jagrup was already down to $55 last week. $475 has already been allocated to rent with a food budget of $108 to last him 31 days. By Tuesday he said all that remained of his welfare payment was $21.45.
For the Vancouver part of the journey Brar has obtained a room in Canada’s poorest postal codes in the Down-town East Side of Vancouver where he is staying at a rooming house at 306 Jackson Ave., just across from Oppenheimer Park.
At a media press conference Brar showed his tiny, spartan room with a one-burner stove a sink, and some decrepit furniture and bare folding foam for a bed. He is sharing a bathroom with 15 other residents in the dilapidated, shabby building in which nothing seems to work or is falling apart. Brar has told reporters earlier if it was not for the challenge he would not have spent an hour in the room.
The apartment complex in Vancouver’s Down-town Eastside that Jagrup Brar will call home. It is located in what is termed the poorest postal code in Canada. Photo by Chandra Bodalia.
Brar’s new neighbourhood is notorious for having a population of mentally ill, drug addicts, prostitutes and the dispossessed of society who have nowhere else to go.
Brar announced the Vancouver leg of his challenge with his wife and children and has drawn concern for his weight loss and tiredness. Brar said it is simply down to not being able to eat properly on the budget. Brar is allowed to spend one night a week at home but must pay for any food consumed. He said his options as far as food for the remainder of his sojourn may be to visit free kitchens for the poor and shelters whilst in Vancouver.
Raise the Rates, who want an increase in social assistance payments said Jagrup’s challenge is rapidly exposing first hand how it is impossible for people to live with dignity on the current payment and want to see increases in the welfare rate.
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on Jan 20 2012. Filed under British Columbia, Top Stories.
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