Surrey MLA Jagrup Brar today (January 17) started the second half of his month-long welfare challenge by moving into single-room occupancy housing in the Downtown Eastside.

Brar, the New Democrat MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood, has agreed to live on the monthly welfare rate of $610 during January to raise awareness about poverty in B.C.

“As a father of two young kids it’s hard for me to believe that we have 137,000 children living in poverty in this beautiful province of British Columbia,” he told reporters today. “It’s hard for me to imagine that we have 70,000 people visiting food banks every month.”

“We are a wealthy society. We can do better. People of British Columbia want us to do better,” he said.

Brar is moving into a roughly 120-square-foot room in a privately owned building near Oppenheimer Park. The suite has a rudimentary stove and cupboards and barely enough floor space for a mattress. There are shared toilet and shower facilities on his floor but no laundry.

The MLA Welfare Challenge was issued by Raise the Rates, a coalition of community groups focused on poverty and homelessness. Raise the Rates has called for a long-term strategy to reduce poverty in B.C. and for an increase to income-assistance rates.

Brar has been living away from his family in shared housing in Surrey during the first part of the welfare challenge. He has been meeting with people living in poverty to learn about the challenges they face and maintaining a blog.

“My experience so far has been eye-opening, disturbing, heartbreaking, and myth-breaking,” he said. “It made me a better person, a person who cares, who is humble, and non-judgmental, and a person who is passionate to fight for justice, to build a better society that is fair, just, and inclusive.”

This morning, Brar arrived at Main Street SkyTrain station in Vancouver and walked to his new, temporary home accompanied by family, supporters, and media. His wife, Rajwant Brar, said the welfare-challenge experience has taken an emotional toll. But she said she is proud of her husband.

Asked about the move to Vancouver, Jagrup Brar said: "The challenge was issued by Raise the Rates that’s based in Vancouver and so that’s why I chose to be here and Vancouver’s also the biggest city in the province of British Columbia so I’m trying to tell the story of half a million people in B.C. [living in poverty] and Vancouver’s a big part of that."

“I don’t know what I’m going to hear in the city of Vancouver but I am prepared,” he said. “I am prepared to listen to shocking and disturbing stories of the people who are struggling in poverty, trying to put together their broken lives.”

Bill Hopwood of Raise the Rates speaks to reporters about housing affordability.