Billions more needed to solve Indigenous housing crisis, say officials

Article content

Liberal MP Jenica Atwin used a cliché in a speech last week that made emcee Christina Gervais smirk.

Speaking at an Indigenous innovation forum in Fredericton on April 9, Atwin, who is parliamentary secretary to the minister of Indigenous Services, said it was important to “think outside the box” on the housing crisis in First Nations, where many homes are overcrowded and problems such as leaks and mould are serious health hazards.

Gervais, who is from Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation in Saskatchewan, had a good-natured rejoinder.

“It’s important to bring it back inside the circle,” she said, reminding the audience at the Fredericton Convention Centre several times that Indigenous people bring their own perspective and ways of thinking to such issues.

In 2022, the Trudeau Liberal government committed $4 billion over seven years for building and repairing housing in Indigenous communities.

But many Indigenous leaders, including people at the forum organized by the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, say it was not enough.

The Assembly of First Nations has argued $44 billion is needed to address on-reserve housing needs alone, plus another $16 billion for expected population growth to 2040. First Nations are among the fastest-growing communities in Canada.

Atwin, who has long worked with First Nations children as an educator and is married into a Wolastoqey family, had a largely receptive audience at the forum, which nonetheless pressed her on several issues.

We’re in a crisis like no other, with a suicide pandemic along with mould in our homes.

Strong Wolf

One Ojibway leader from northern Ontario, David Flood, or Strong Wolf, expressed concern that any gains made for First Nations housing could be lost if the government changes in Ottawa in next year’s federal election.

“We’re in a crisis like no other, with a suicide pandemic along with mould in our homes,” he said. “How do we make this non-partisan?”

Strong Wolf said he was worried about treachery on the part of the Canadian government and wasn’t pleased when Conservative Stephen Harper was in power.

“We saw what happened last time,” he said.

Atwin tried to assure him that Parliamentarians were more educated about Indigenous issues than ever before.

“I absolutely feel there’s been a shift,” she said. “The Bloc Québécois, the NDP, even my Conservative colleagues understand the importance of these issues.”

The forum was also a showcase for ideas in the nonprofit housing sector.

Laurent Odjick, executive director of the Société immobilière du Regroupement des centres d’amitié autochtones du Québec (SIRCAAQ), showed on a screen several Indigenous housing projects that have been built or are planned in places such as Sept-Îles, Quebec City, Trois-Rivières, Gatineau, Montreal and elsewhere.

The nonprofit organization’s fully furnished buildings are often grouped together on a university or college campus, allowing Indigenous people to pursue a higher education. They also have amenities to make the stay easier. Units have up to four bedrooms, and the apartment includes a daycare and after-school facilities, allowing single parents with many children to live there. They also feature communal kitchens where people can prepare moose or geese.

“Most of the students have families,” he said. “Daycare and community space is a must.”

The projects, Odjick warned, are expensive and demand many funding sources and partners, as many as a dozen. For instance, the 42-unit apartment in Trois-Rivières cost $36 million.

He recommended that people who want to build Indigenous housing form committees that include participants from as many funding sources as possible, to help push projects ahead, a plan that he said had sped up their projects twice as fast.