Tim movement from the reserve is influenced by lack of employment. Tim says that he want to leave the reserve and go to Sudbury to seek for employment. He says that, he and other men of his age have left the reserve to seek for employment. He continues to say how many other men and women have left to seek for employment elsewhere.
The government has not intervened to solve the problem of unemployment. The government of Ontario comes up with poverty reduction strategies but none implemented, this is the scenario that Tim and his age mates are experiencing in the reserve. The unemployment is a direct causative agent of poverty and illustrated from Tim’s situation of poor housing and lack of sanitation. (Haugen, & Musser, 2011).
Unemployment is reflected in the large number of migration by youth from the reserve to other places. The idleness has resulted to frustration and depression. The rampant poverty and poor living conditions are prompting many youths to move and Tim is on the verge of moving.
Unemployment benefits are enjoyable to those with prior work experience. If one have paid enough to the policy, the returns are satisfactory. With such benefits, one is able to live a good life that is of good standards. However, to Tim, this has no advantage to him since he has not worked anywhere before (Haugen, & Musser, 2011).
Long-term planning: unemployment provides a lot of free time to reflect on the past and project his future career path. Tim has nothing to rejoice about, his unemployment situation does not provide free time to reflect on anything but causes him frustration and depression.
Savings: unemployment does not provide for more savings. Employed people continue saving. For Tim, unemployment causes misery and depression (Tatsiramos, & Ours, 2012).
Employment provides employee benefits: being employed is a source of more income through allowances. For Tim and the people in the reserve, there are no such benefits as they are unemployed (Tatsiramos, & Ours, 2012).
Seniority: unemployment denies one chances to increase their promotion. For Tim, this is unrealizable since he is not employed. Employment enhances consistent work history resume: this is a benefit of employment but Tim’s unemployment plays to his disadvantage since he has no prior work experience (Tatsiramos, & Ours, 2012).
Another important area of the social policy that is revealed in the Case Vignette 2 is the social housing. The key role of the social housing is to provide affordable place to live to the people of the low incomes. Tim has decided to move to Sudbury because the accommodation in the reserve is not affordable hence living him worse off.
The social housing in reserved has failed in a sense that the limit to rent increase that is provided by law has failed to keep the rents affordable. Although the Department of Housing and Urban Development has stated that there are over 1.2 million households living in the public houses, it has neglected and failed to provide such accommodations to the people in the reserve (Forrest & Lee, 2003). Despite the fact that the social housing comes with various advantages, it also has several cons.
One of the benefits of the social housing policy is that public houses are affordable to the senior citizens, low-income families and persons with disabilities and complies with safety and building codes. If the social housing policy were well implemented in, the reserve, disadvantaged people such as Tim would find accommodation with a reasonable rate. Consequently, Tim would not make a move to the Sudbury since he would find safe dwelling that would favor his social welfare.
Although public houses in most cases are safe and affordable dwellings, inadequate federal funding may result into problems that may provoke migration. As a result, the rental units become in need of repair, or outdated (Harrison & Davis, 2001). Insufficient funds results to understaffing and low flow of communication between the housing authority management and the residents. Such problem would also trigger Tim to abandon reserve and move to other places that offer better public houses.
Advantage of the social housing policy is that it offers public houses that are allocated based on need. Dissimilar to the private rentals, where tenancy are provided by landlord to the tenants of their choice, social housing is allocated with accordance to local council’s allocation scheme (Harrison & Davis, 2001). According to the Localism Act 2011, council can determine who is and who is not eligible to be allocated in the social housing. Out of those who are eligible, legislation provides certain exception to consider the disadvantaged group and provide them a reasonable preference.
However, the public housing is vulnerable to drug-related crimes or high rate of violent, according to the NHI. Because of multiple crime cases, a hostile neighborhood may be created and this might force residents to move to other places that are safe for residing. Therefore, such issue must be considered to enable residents such as Tim to feel safe and satisfied with the reserve, holding other factors constant.
References
Forrest, R. & Lee, J. (2003). Housing and social change: East-West perspectives. London: Routledge.
Harrison, M. L., & Davis, C. (2001). Housing, social policy, and difference: Disability, ethnicity, gender, and housing. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Haugen, D. M., & Musser, S. (2011). Unemployment. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
Tatsiramos, K., & Ours, J. C. (2012). Labor Market Effects of Unemployment Insurance Design. London: Centre for Economic Policy Research.
