Karla Pearce will burn three of her paintings in what she calls an "act of desperation" to protest poverty in B.C. This painting of Monte Lake after the White Rock Lake wildfire, however, is not a piece that she will burn on March 18, 2022.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Karla Pearce

Karla Pearce lives with an invisible disability and gets by with government assistance, but cost of living increases have pushed those government cheques well-behind a livable wage.

After dealing with a wrongful eviction and barely getting by on disability assistance, she said the art burning is an "act of desperation" to bring attention to people in poverty for whom government assistance is not enough.

"The paintings are like a sacrifice," she said. "I'm doing this as a desperate plea for people to look and listen to what is going on."

She is hosting a small event on Friday, March 18, near the Thompson River to burn some of her paintings in an effort to raise awareness for disability payments that have not increased along with the cost to live in B.C.

Pearce receives $1,390 per month for B.C. disability payments, significantly less than CERB payments issued by the federal government. She said disability payments should provide a living wage for people who can't work, but it falls short due the rising cost of living, and she gets the standard amount for a single person living without children on disability.

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Those payments leave her with $140 after rent, where she splits a $2,500 two-bedroom suite with a roommate, all the while Canada experiences its highest inflation rate since 1991 and B.C. housing prices skyrocket.

"The B.C. government has to step up, much like federal government did when they saw a crisis," she said, recalling the early announcement of CERB payments when the country responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Pearce lives with bipolar disorder and consistent migraines that can debilitate her for days, and while these symptoms leave her unable to work, people who do not know her wouldn't be aware of her disability.

She recently won an appeal against a wrongful eviction. Pearce said her former landlord wanted to charge higher rent, and Pearce won a $6,000 pay-out, but it didn't get her suite back.

Prior to the housing boom and rental spike in Kamloops over the last two years, she said disability payments were sufficient, but Pearce also lived with her two children at the time. Her kids would help with rent payments, and government assistance is also higher for parents living with their children.

However, real estate prices in Kamloops shot up in the past two years, and rent along with it.

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Rentals listing website Zumper.com listed a 15% increase for two-bedroom rentals in Kamloops last month, up to an average of $1,700 per month. It added a disclaimer, however, that it was based on limited data.

Pearce considers herself lucky compared to others on the same disability benefits, given that she has a stable place to live at the moment.

She said some people on disability are at risk of being taken advantage of when they can only afford to live with roommates who they may not know. As a woman who spent more than 20 years in what she called an abusive marriage, she said women are particularly at risk.

Despite feeling that she is better off than others on disability benefits, she bought herself a van with money she saved from CERB payments, and she's converting it into a livable space.

"If I leave this place where I'm at, then I will have to live in my vehicle," Pearce said. "This is what I'm doing to prepare myself in case I can't live here anymore."

The art burning performance will take place tomorrow morning and she is only inviting a small group of people, but she is hoping videos and photos of the event will produce an impactful image.

"I want to do a call to action for the B.C. government to pull their head out of their asses," Pearce said.

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