Although Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, a number of its people sleep in the streets, dig through garbage cans to find food, and carry all that they own in this world on their backs or in shopping carts. These people are known as the homeless. Many people think that homeless people are those who are mentally ill and are a threat to society, however, that is not the case. The majority of people who are victims of homelessness are those who have been pushed out of their homes. This list of victims includes the elderly, runaways and the unemployed; all of who are forced to move out because they can't pay the rent. Homeless people are just a small sample that fortify the fact that Canada still suffers from the looming consequences of social inequality.
While Canada does have its share of homeless people, its number of poor is quite staggering. According to the National Council of Welfare, about one of six Canadians are considered poor (Question 93). The poor are those who are not necessarily starving or homeless, but are those who are "relatively deprived" (97). Although there is no "official" definition in determining who is poor and who isn't, the best-known measurement is the Statistics Canada definition (97). Statistics Canada considers families who spend more than 58.5 percent of their gross income on the necessities of food, clothing and shelter to be living in poverty (97). According to this definition, 13.1 percent of Canadian families (949, 000 families) and 36.5 percent of unattached individuals (1.26 million individuals) in 1991 were considered in poverty (98). In spite of these numbers giving a general idea of the poverty level, many people are left out of the statistics. Those not included comprise of natives living on reserves, inmates in institutions, residents of Yukon and the Northwest Territories and the homeless (98). Taking these people in effect, the numbers would definitely be different since a fair number of these people are unemployed.
