1 in 5 single adults in Canada live in poverty, a million stuck in a cycle of deep poverty

Amid ongoing concerns about food insecurity, a newly published national report by Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC) unveils an alarming poverty rate among working-age single adults in Canada, standing at three times higher than the national average.

According to the report, published on Thursday titled “Sounding the Alarm,” more than one in five single adults (22 per cent) live below the poverty line, highlighting that single adults encounter the highest poverty rates in the country.

Quinton Darke has been living on the streets in the North Bay area for more than two years and says it has never been harder. (Eric Taschner/CTV News Northern Ontario)Trying to make ends meet for Quinton Darke have never been harder. He's been living on the streets of North Bay for more than two years.

"Money's tight. Everything is so expensive,” he said.

“You end up digging in garbage. You try not to sometimes."

Many working-age single adults rely on low-wage, part-time, temporary employment opportunities that lack benefits and stability. The social support programs in place are outdated and inadequate for the current labor market, contributing to the challenges these individuals face, the report cited.

"It's around, around, around and all over Canada. There's a lot of people who are stuck,” said Darke.

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According to the report, nearly one million working-age single adults are stuck in a cycle of ‘deep’ poverty with an average annual income of $11,700, which is less than half of the $25,252 low-income threshold for a single-adult household. The report highlights that nearly half of single adults (47 per cent) live in unaffordable housing compared to 17 per cent in other household types and 81 per cent of shelter users are single adults with low income.

"Last year we produced 65,000 meals and we believe that number will skyrocket," predicted Annabelle Lamarche, the Food Rescue Coordinator at The Gathering Place soup kitchen.

These working-age single adults make up to 38 per cent of all food-insecure households in the country with 61 per cent of them severely disabled living alone below the poverty line, the report said.

In order to fill the gap in support for working-age single adults, Lamarche and the CFCC recommends that the existing Canada Workers Benefit be expanded and enhanced into a refundable tax credit called the Canada Working-Age Supplement and the working-age single adults living in poverty would receive the supplement whether they are attached to the labour market or not.

“Especially coming out of this global pandemic, a lot of folks have been hit very hard,” said Lamarche.

“These wages aren't enough to sustain the living cost now that we're all facing."

In the survey, some of the participants stated that they encountered difficulties such as struggling to afford nutritious food or adequate housing and some participants felt trapped in the social assistance system because transitioning to part-time or contract work would result in losing crucial health benefits.

“The evidence is overwhelmingly clear – through woefully inadequate income support programs and a labour market that creates precarity because of low wages and few benefits, we are trapping people in poverty in this country,” CFCC CEO Nick Saul said in a news release Thursday.

“‘Sounding the Alarm’ illustrates that our governments and employers are leaving working-age single adults behind,” he said in the release.

“We urgently need a national solution that responds to the realities that people are voicing in this report. If Canada is serious about making life equitable for everyone, then we need to find the political will to create income policies that take people out of poverty – not for a week, or a month, but for good.”

Volunteers sort through donated food items and other sundries during the ‘September 13th Miracle’ food drive in Montreal, THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham HughesStaff at the North Bay Food Bank are saddened by this growing trend. The bulk of their clientele is made up of working-age single adults.

"The first five months of 2023, we've had already 98 new sign-ups. The majority of those would be single adults as opposed to 65 new registrants at that point in 2022,” said the food bank’s executive director Debbie Marson.

For those people down on their luck, many of them can't find ways out of the endless poverty cycle.

"The best thing to do for the homeless is not to look away and give what you can," said Darke.

“It’s such a huge issue.”