Food or crack. The choice is yours
Food or crack. The choice is yours.
That's the message one northern B.C. aid group has issued to people knocking on the door for help, saying they must now provide proof of financial need to gain assistance.
The requirement stems from bureaucracy — an audit of the Dawson Creek Salvation Army last year slammed the fact people didn't need to show what they were earning to gain free food — but now workers hope it could help break the poverty cycle.
Kim Mulligan, director of family services for the Dawson Creek Salvation Army, said blithely handing out assistance without proof of need was “enabling people to destroy themselves.”
“If you pay $700 rent and the cheque you get is $800, clearly you need us to help you. But if you've got someone who brings in their information and they're making $5,000 a month, I want to know where that money's going,” Ms. Mulligan told The Globe in a telephone interview.
“One guy today had $100. He could have bought food, but he bought crack. He didn't get anything [from the Salvation Army]. How are we to help if we continue to enable them?”
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