'Change has to start somewhere ... it might as well be here'
Ted Bak and Russell Lambly stand in front of their Cole Crescent apartment building Thursday. The two are pulling back the curtain on their experience of poverty in the hopes that it will help spur changes in the province. Justin Samanski-Langille/Miramichi Leader
MIRAMICHI - For 10 days in July, Russell Lambly, Ted Bak and around 48 other residents of a Miramichi apartment building woke up and started packing up their belongings.
For 10 days, Lambly and Bak, 63 and 59 respectively, spent the day unsure of where they were going to sleep that evening.
For 10 days, they were homeless.
Today, the duo are back at home – repairs from a small fire and subsequent fire code deficiencies have been completed at their building, known as the Skyway Lodge – and there is a certain amount of certainty back in their lives.
Lambly and Bak are two of the 21,765 active cases receiving social assistance from the province this month, according to a quick facts report published by the Department of Social Development on July 25.
Both are unable to work due to a combination of their age and various health issues, COPD and an autoimmune disorder in the case of Bak and a lengthy surgery recovery and mental health issues for Lambly, which means their monthly social assistance cheque is all they have to live on.
For Bak, that adds up to $537 while Lambly gets slightly more, as a result of his recognized disability, at $576.
Living on that little each month ensures the uncertainty never completely goes away, said Lambly.
“Do I do this, do I not do this. Do I eat today, do I not eat today. I have three doctors appointments this month. How do I get there, how do I get back," he said.
"People living in a rooming house are paying 60 to 65 per cent of their wages on rent alone, which leaves you around $6 a day to try and survive each month."
"At the end of the month, you have absolutely no money and you know there are still maybe four or five days left before you get your next cheque and you look at your cupboard and you only have one box of Kraft Dinner or noodles," added Bak.
"What are you going to do? How do you expect a person to feel?”
This is the life of many people living below the poverty line across the province, and after around 100 people spent those 10 days homeless in July, Lambly and Bak want people to know what life is like on Cole Crescent, home to the only two buildings those 100 or so people could afford in Miramichi.
They want people to know what it's like so that things might change for everyone else like them in the province.
“The first thing you have to deal with is the boredom," said Lambly.
"You may have a small routine in the morning, for example I have my three cats so my routine is to get up, make a cup of tea and feed my cats and cleanup. Then, the rest of your day is a blank slate. You have no money, so even if you wanted to go somewhere, you have no way to get there. Even if you need something and you can get there, you have no money to purchase it. Your life is just one tedious, boring day after another.”
”I can’t stand sitting around doing nothing," added Bak.
"I would love to be working because I loved it. This is killing me slowly sitting around doing nothing. People think we are lazy bums, and there are some, but don’t put us all in the same pot."
The stigma surrounding poverty and everything that comes with it is a major challenge for those living it, Lambly and Bak said.
If anything is to change, that stigma needs to go away, they said.
From the outside looking in, it can lead you to think that if you don't see people sleeping on the streets or begging for change, two very rare sights in the Miramichi, that there is no poverty issue in the region.
Lambly and Bak agree it can be hard to see, and that's why they want people, especially lawmakers in Fredericton, to spend more time with people in their situation.
”You have to get down here at ground zero and look at and talk to people," said Bak.
According to Lambly, previous provincial governments efforts promoted under the banner of a "war on poverty" have done nothing for the people actually living in poverty and began to feel more like a "war against the impoverished" with cuts to social assistance made by several provincial governments.
He said he feels like there needs to be a shift in the way issues surrounding poverty are approached in New Brunswick, and that the onus isn't solely on the government.
But he also realizes there are some clear barriers to overcome.
"We are a have-not province so far in debt we can’t see up and it doesn’t look like that is going to change," Lambly said.
"Change only comes about through the activity and voice of the people through the vote and electing people who are going to actually be there and do the right thing. We need changes from the top down that have immediate effect on the bottom up.”
Despite their concerns, Lambly and Bak say there is some light at the end of the tunnel, at least in Miramichi.
After spending hours each day with the residents on Cole Crescent ever since a non-occupancy order was placed on Cole Crescent in June, Miramichi MLA Michelle Conroy and Pastor Ray Arsenault of the nearby Skyway to Heaven Church have started the process of creating a committee aimed at identifying and implementing conventional and unconventional solutions to the region's lack of affordable housing and poverty.
”Change has to start somewhere ... it might as well start here," said Lambly.