The poor, it has been said, are always with us – but if we act, insist the organisers of Anti-Poverty Week (beginning today), we can solve this problem, and give our fellow citizens a better life. That message is particularly important this year, as the city reels from the shock of the pandemic and the two-month lockdown.

“During Anti-Poverty Week, we will ask Canberrans to reflect on and discuss the poverty and disadvantage on our own doorstep, and what we can do to make a change,” said Dr Emma Campbell, CEO of the ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS).

She is convening the week’s activities with Jenny Kitchin, CEO of Woden Community Service.

Every year, Anti-Poverty Week reminds the public of the plight of our most disadvantaged. Want and misery are in our midst, even in one of Australia’s most prosperous cities: nine per cent of Canberrans, some 38,300 people, live below the poverty line; 9,000 of them are children.

Dr Campbell encouraged the public to ‘Take 10 to Talk About Poverty’ – watch a brief video about poverty, and discuss the experiences of those in the community.

There will also be youth art competitions, an interview with social researcher Hugh Mackay, and the Carillon and Telstra Tower will be illuminated in blue to symbolise a brighter future for children living in poverty. (A full list of activities can be found here.)

Dr Campbell encouraged the public to donate through Hands Across Canberra, an independent philanthropic community foundation that works with more than 300 local community organisations that help vulnerable people. Its motto: ‘Give where you live’.

“Everyone in Canberra thinks everyone in Canberra is fine,” said CEO Peter Gordon. “It surprises people to see there are so many children struggling, so many people unemployed, so many people disconnected from the labour market and from the general economy.”

There are not enough resources for PCYC to help all the kids struggling to get into programs, or for the YWCA to help homeless women and children, he said.

“We’d all be better off if the people that are doing OK looked out the window and said: What can I do locally?”

Canberrans, Mr Gordon said, are generous donors – but almost all the money they donate goes out of the ACT to national and international causes. If he could increase the amount of money Canberrans give to charity by $10 per adult, he would have $2.5 million to change the city.

“There is need here,” Mr Gordon said. “There’s a lot to be done, and we can all get it done if we get involved. There’s no need for people to be left behind.”

During the lockdown, Hands Across Canberra spent $200,000 on emergency relief and on mental health and domestic violence. With less federal government support, the vulnerable have become even more disadvantaged. Last year, they needed supplies to get through the pandemic; this time, they needed food, rent assistance, and essential supplies.

Woden Community Service’s Little Pantry provides emergency food relief; during the pandemic, Jenny Kitchin said, there has been a huge demand on it. “Many of these people have families with children who are struggling to make ends meet.”

What does poverty look like in the ACT?

In the ACT, poverty is often hidden behind high averages and the Territory’s relative wealth compared to other jurisdictions, Dr Campbell said.

But ACTCOSS’s 2021 ACT Cost of Living Report, published the very day lockdown was announced, revealed that Canberra was unaffordable for people on low incomes.

Poverty had increased from eight per cent in 2016 to nine per cent last year, due to the cost of essential goods, the most expensive rents in the country, and the chronic lack of affordable housing. The number of working poor – people unable to live, pay their rent or mortgage, put food on the table, and raise their children – has risen from 30,000 to 40,000 people.

“The rise in private rental costs in Canberra has led staff at Woden Community Service to see more and more people struggling to pay their bills so they can afford to pay their rent,” Ms Kitchin said. “This can often mean going without heating and meals.”

Since lockdown, Dr Campbell said, the number of people looking for work on JobSeeker or Youth Allowance had increased by 7.5 per cent to around 9,500 people; and the demand for community services had increased due to financial stress.

“The end of lockdown won’t see our economy immediately recover or everyone return to their previous work and income,” Dr Campbell prophesied.

The 64,000 Canberrans who lost work have received COVID-19 Disaster Payments; they were being phased out in the ACT and NSW from 8 October once 70 per cent of residents were fully vaccinated.

“It is unclear how many of the 64,000 people receiving these will remain without work and income, and be forced onto below-poverty income support payments,” Dr Campbell said.

Peter Gordon agreed. “All of Australia hopes beyond hope that as the restrictions reduce, kids get back to school, and people get back to work, the challenges become less. But a lot of businesses aren’t going to reopen. A lot of people who lived on half-a-dozen shifts at various places per week will go from no shift to three or four. Maybe they’ll get back to their six. The Uber drivers will get some work. The international students will come back. There’s a lot of things that have got to get done for us to get back to where we used to be.”

Dr Campbell said that in the absence of sufficient Federal Government supports to keep people out of poverty, the ACT Government must focus on the ACT’s social and economic recovery. She believes the ACT Government must invest more in social housing to address the shortfall of 3,000-odd social housing dwellings, and that the Federal Government must raise the rate of income support above the poverty line.

“Solving poverty is possible where there is social backing and political will,” Dr Campbell said.

When the Federal Government introduced the JobKeeper supplement of $550 per fortnight, Canberra’s poverty rate dropped from 8.6 per cent to 5.2 per cent. Recipients could eat better and more regularly, catch up on bills, pay for medicine, pay rent, pay off debts, save up for emergencies, buy fridges and tables, and save up to study. When the supplement was removed, the poverty rate rose to nine per cent – above the pre-COVID level.

“This highlights that as a society – through our elected representatives – we are making the choice to leave people in poverty,” Dr Campbell said.

Canberrans can support campaigns like the Raise the Rate for Good campaign to increase income support payments above the poverty line, and the Everybody’s Home campaign to fix Australia’s housing system.

Anti-Poverty Week (17-23 October) is also supported by Canberra Community Law, YWCA Canberra, Relationships Australia Canberra & Region, and St Vincent De Paul Society Canberra and Goulburn.