Poverty in Toronto costs between $4.4 billion and $5.5 billion a year, according to a groundbreaking report on what we all pay in added health care, policing and depressed economic productivity for the city’s 265,000 families living on low incomes. Although data is limited, Stapleton and his researchers were able to quantify the annual impact of poverty on crime in Toronto at $436 million. And they pegged poverty’s cost on health care at $753.7 million a year. Although the report outlines the cost to society at large, the burden of poverty falls most heavily on those living on low incomes. “For Toronto to succeed, we can’t afford to leave so many in poverty,” says Sean Meagher of Social Planning Toronto.

Source: thestar November 28, 2016 10:01 UTC