SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Whose faces does one see when one thinks of poverty in the NWT? For the panel gathered to discuss that very question Wednesday it would have to include themselves, said one panelist.

"I'm told to put a face to poverty and it's all of us sitting here," said Kate Wilson, director of housing with the Yellowknife YWCA.

"Most people are all one pay cheque away from being in the same soup, so as far as I can see it's everybody's business."

The panel, in Yellowknife for the three-day No Place for Poverty workshop and comprising of voices from both Yellowknife and the outlying communities, met at Northern United Place.

Wilson said more and more people who to come to her in need of transitional housing at the YWCA are the working poor.

"We see more people that are working two jobs and can't make ends meet here in Yellowknife," said Wilson.

"There is no reason that a family is either contemplating whether or not to put food on the table or to put shelter over their head.

"A lot of families are living in misery. It's not the people who are destitute now, it's those who are working that are joining."

According to 2008 income figures provided by the NWT Bureau of Statistics, 14.3 per cent of NWT families are considered "low income" - the national is 12.4 per cent.

Wilson said while the territorial government has expressed concern over the territory's poverty issues, but more needs to be done.

"As they sit and talk about these things and plan, there are still people going without food," said Wilson.

Another panel member, Lydia Bardak, a city councillor and executive director of the NWT's John Howard Society, said it's a struggle just to pay the group's staff a wage on which they can survive.

"In Yellowknife if a family was to pay $1,300 a month for accommodation they would need to be earning $25 an hour," said Bardak.

"I know at my own agency we struggle to come up with $20 an hour to pay our staff so their isn't anybody working at the John Howard Society who's going to be able to afford an apartment for their family in Yellowknife."

Gloria Enzoe and Stephanie Poole from the Lutselk'e Dene First Nation spoke about poverty effecting their communities.

"The rental rates for public housing units are very high," said Poole. "Rents are subsidized based on income. People are discouraged from working since their rent rises too high."

She said the housing policy doesn't meet the needs of the people and that there is no rental market aside from the public housing units.

"The people need to get away from dependence on government and implement sustainable development opportunities," said Poole.

"Historically we are a hard working people now many are idle, we have to have control of our own resources both renewable and non-renewable."

Another speaker on the panel was Laura Rose, president of the Hay River Soup Kitchen.

The soup kitchen started in 1994 and since has grown to serve more than 200 clients.

She said the clientele includes people with addictions, mental disabilities, literacy problems, physical handicaps and people with low self-esteem.

"What one hope that our government can do is first we need revamping our income support but also needed to give help where it's needed - to the front line organizations," said Rose.

"While the short term is being looked at there are all kinds of opportunities for change in health education, housing etc. But we need to bring the poor forward because most of them have become so beaten down that they don't know how to speak for themselves."

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