INCOME AND HOUSING DYNAMICS
IN BELLEVILLE
- The average household income in Belleville is approximately $8,000 below the Ontario average at $51,026 and 44% of employed earn less than $20,000 per annum compared to Ontario with a 37% rate. The unemployment rate is slightly higher than large urban centres at an average of 6% in 2006.
- Belleville exhibits a trend toward underemployment (working fewer than the desired hours each week, or in a position well beneath an individual’s ability or training.) (Belleville Community Profile 2007)
- The stagnant financial subsidy for people on OW, ODSP, EI, and CPP is placing those in this sector in a more precarious position as to their ability to afford housing. This then causes pressure on the demand for subsidized affordable housing units.
- The average monthly shelter costs are $805.64 (Stats Can Small Data Division, 2005) and have risen by 33% since 2001.
- Renters in core housing were spending between 47% and 50% of their household income on shelter between 1991 and 2001.
Belleville has used the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) statistics that anticipate that there is a potential for 9,065 persons at risk of homelessness compared to 8,348 in 2006. Considering all the demographic and socioeconomic trends described earlier in this report, there is every reason to believe that this increase will continue to rise. The growth rate in seniors who become at risk of homelessness should be watched closely as the population in this age bracket on fixed income will rise.