September marks the second straight year of steep fare hikes on the HSR most of whose riders are among the lowest income residents of Hamilton. The increases also chop the number of the city’s “affordable transit passes” down to just 350 riders per month.
The “working poor” fare subsidy program was set up as a pilot in 2008 and only made permanent in March of 2015. It allows eligible HSR users to purchase the adult monthly pass for half price, but to qualify they must not only pass an income means test but also prove they are employed and between the ages of 18 and 64. The self-employed are not eligible, regardless of their income, and part-time workers are effectively excluded as well.
The program uses a far more stringent maximum earnings requirement than provincial low-income assistance plans. Other restrictions further limit its utility for the one-fifth of Hamilton’s population who are recognized as living in poverty. That’s aggravated by its inexplicable use of poverty standards that are a decade out of date.
To qualify for the fare reduction the city requires proof from Revenue Canada of your last year’s income plus “four recent, consecutive pay stubs” to confirm that you are employed. It also requires that “your family income falls below the 2006 Statistics Canada Low-Income Cutoff (LIC) for your family size” or that “you receive assistance from Ontario Works (OW) or the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).”
For a single working person, that means your after-tax income can’t be greater than $17,570. That appears to disqualify minimum wage employees working more than 37 hours a week. For a two-person family, the maximum allowable income is $21,384. The current Statistics Canada cutoff is almost $2000 higher in each category but Hamilton’s transit pass program has not been updated to reflect this.
In contrast two recently established provincial low-income assistance programs provide help for singles with an after-tax income that falls below $28,000 a year. That qualifies the individual for a $30 a month rebate on her or his electricity bill under the Ontario Electricity Support Program. If you own a home, that income will also make you eligible for free home insulation, a programmable thermostat and other energy saving assistance from Union Gas.
The HSR fare assistance program also is only available toward the purchase of monthly passes (at $50.60 instead of the $101.20 in effect on September 1), so it has limited value for HSR passengers who don’t need the bus every work day. That helps explain why the program has attracted few takers.
There’s also the requirement to go to the Hunter Street HSR sales wicket during regular business hours to obtain the discounted pass in the form of a Presto card that costs an extra $6. The card is programmed to only act as a monthly pass which for a regular user costs the equivalent of 44 rides her month. In contrast, seniors can obtain a Presto card that can be permanently used for a discounted fair no matter when or how many times they use the HSR or other transit services.
But even if the affordable transit pass is useful, obtaining one is steadily getting harder because of the limited monies council has allocated to the program. When it was approved, the budget would have covered 409 passes per month. With the fare hikes last year and this, that number is now down to 351.
After running as a “pilot program” for several years, council agreed to establish annual funding of $328,560 during the 2015 budget deliberations. Annual staff and administration costs are $115,000 – half of that covered by the provincial government – leaving less than $214,000 a year to subsidize actual passes.
When the program was made permanent last year, staff promised to implement controls and spending caps to ensure costs are contained within the approved budget amount” by measures such as “introducing a minimum number of hours worked in order to qualify”, establishing a wait list, and/or “imposing a cap on the number of times a recipient can access the program.”