A stark warning on poverty

Sheelagh Cooper, of the Coalition for Protection of Children, said the extent of the wealth gap between rich and poor in Bermuda was “the island’s darkest secret”.

She puts forward a slew of suggestions for change — including single sex boarding schools for ‘at risk’ youth and better financial assistance for struggling families.

“Many Bermudians - even those working multiple jobs - simply cannot earn enough money to adequately provide for their families. The sad truth is that they cannot earn a living wage from these jobs given the extraordinarily high cost of living in Bermuda,” she told the Parliamentary Select Committee on violent crime and gun violence yesterday.

She said many of the children who grew up to be involved in gangs came from single parent families, where the mother had little time to spend with her children.

“When they do have a roof over their heads, they share one bedroom with their mother, siblings, and possibly others.

“They have no privacy or quiet place to do homework. Moreover, they go to school the next morning without having eaten breakfast, and often carrying no lunch.”

While many young men had turned to drugs and gun violence, women were turning to dangerous lifestyles in equal numbers, she said.

“These young men’s sisters are equally damaged by the conditions these boys have had to endure over the last 15 to 25 years.

“While these young men sell drugs and shoot each other, their sisters are prostituting themselves, having babies and looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places.”

She said the fundamental reason for this was not the “breakdown of the family” but economic issues.

Mrs. Cooper said Bermuda had always had a high proportion of single parent households but previously moms had been able to go to work and leave the grandmothers to look after their children.

Fewer women at home

She said over the last 40 years rental prices had risen way out of proportion with wage increases, meaning less women were able to stay at home.

“In 1970, 92 per cent of the population paid less than $200 in rent and 54 per cent of women remained at home caring for their children. By 1980, 39 per cent of women were still at home and 66 per cent of the population paid under $300 a month in rent.

“Somewhere between 1990 and 1995 (coincidentally just around the time that these young men were born) the cost of living and more particularly the cost of rental properties had more than quadrupled and now not only are 80 per cent of women in the workforce but many of them have more than one job.

“Today, the average rental cost of a two-bedroom apartment on the market is almost $3,000 per month or $36,000 per year while the average income in the restaurant, café and bar industry (if you still have a job there) is only $37,000 per year and the average salary of all non-professional workers is $45,000.”

Ms Cooper argued that work permits had been handed out too easily for unskilled jobs allowing business to keep wages artificially low.