No one can say for sure whether the one-two punch of rising property taxes and surging utility bills is behind all of the new faces at Lord’s Bounty Food Bank.
But given that the food bank’s Dennis Hydamaka has long predicted those cost-of-living increases would make more residents reliant on Lord’s Bounty, it is certainly possible.
In 2013, Hydamaka told Flin Flon city council the hikes would make welfare recipients “hungrier” and that he didn’t think Lord’s Bounty could handle “what I expect will be the number of people coming to the door for food.”
Last week, Hydamaka returned to council chambers with news that since the city boosted taxes on low-end homes along with overall utility rates last year, Lord’s Bounty has accepted 48 new client families.
Most food bank clients are renters. Many of them live in low-end homes, the very houses targetted for tax increases by council’s special services levy (SSL).
Those low-end homes, like all other homes in Flin Flon, were also hit with a 30 per cent utility hike last fall.
These renters are thankfully not at the complete mercy of market forces given that Manitoba has partial rent controls.
This means that in many cases, a landlord cannot immediately pass on tax and utility increases to low-income tenants. He is instead limited to reasonable annual increases.
Rent controls were mentioned during the initial debate over the SSL as one way low-income residents would be protected.
But the reality of rent controls is that once a tenant moves out – and low-income people tend to move more often than those of greater privilege – a landlord will most certainly adjust his rent to reflect tax and utility hikes.
And so the next low-income person or family to move into that house is going to be that much poorer – assuming they can even afford the place.
Of course some food bank clients – and many more low- or fixed-income residents who do not rely on the food bank – own their own homes.
For those people, the SSL and utility hikes are felt immediately and sharply.
Unintended
Let’s be clear: council never wanted nor intended to send more people to the food bank.
Utility bills are up because Flin Flon’s drinking water was subpar and the provincial government forced the city to build a water treatment plant. The plant is up and running and it’s not going to get any cheaper.
The bigger question at this stage is the SSL, which goes before a make-or-break public hearing on May 7.
Council’s rationale for the SSL is that low-end homeowners weren’t carrying enough of the tax load with annual bills that amounted to a few hundred dollars, and in many cases under $300.
Certainly the assumption was that whatever negatives stemmed from the SSL would be outweighed by the benefits.
Rising food bank numbers, while not conclusively linked to the SSL, are a sign this may not be the case.
