First Nations & Aboriginal Homelessness in Canada: A View from the Field
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First Nations & Aboriginal Homelessness in Canada: A View from the Field Dr. Yale D. Belanger Associate Professor Political Science University of Lethbridge Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH) Launch Webinar 26 November 2014
Transcript of First Nations & Aboriginal Homelessness in Canada: A View from the Field
First Nations & Aboriginal
Homelessness in Canada:
A View from the FieldDr. Yale D. BelangerAssociate ProfessorPolitical Science
University of Lethbridge
Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH) Launch Webinar26 November 2014
• Not an Aboriginal homelessness issue; • A homelessness issue disproportionately affecting Aboriginal peoples;
• Unique urban and reserve contexts simultaneously influence the other;
• Federal government insists on market based approaches for reserve housing;
• Feds and provinces tend to declaim responsibility for urban Aboriginal peoples;
• Remedial policy void for a growing and increasingly vulnerable population.
• No effective data estimating the level of reserve homelessness;
• We do know this (2006 data): – 26% adults live in crowded home (compared to 3% non-Native population);
– 423,000 people live in 82,400 overcrowded, substandard/rapidly deteriorating housing units;
– 1/3 living in unacceptable housing; • 5,486 of the ~82,000 houses lack sewage services;
• Mold contaminates almost ½ of First Nations homes.
• 1958: 24% of reserve families required new housing (6,999 new houses costing roughly $16,796,000, or $139,818,357.62 today);
• 1966: 12,000 new homes over five-years to meet a backlog of ~6,000 units anticipating new family formation of about 1,250 a year;
• 1967: Hawthorn report: “Generally over-crowded; child sleeps with siblings in same bed; little or no privacy; scarcity of furniture; some-times dirty house; often un-attractive, unpainted and uncared for;”
• 1970-1990s: ad-hoc/poorly coordinated policy response.
• 2001: shortage of roughly 8,500 houses on reserves and that 44% of the existing stock of 89,000 houses required renovations;
• 2003: Auditor General: “there is still a critical shortage of adequate housing”;
• 2011: 20,000 to 35,000 new units required to meet current demand, 16,900 units needed repairs, and 5,200 units needed to be replaced;
• 2006-2013: Canada provided $2.3 billion in on-reserve housing support (1,750 new units and 3,100 renovations annually).
• Action is required: 1958: 7,000 units and $140M (2014$) for additional infrastructure/repairs;
1960-2000s: ad-hoc response!
2014: endemic/chronic reserve housing crisis (~30,000 unit shortfall; ~89,000 units in need of renovations) that cost $2.3B to manage (2006-2013).
Urban Aboriginal Homelessness
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Urban Aboriginal Homelessness
• Substantially heightened homeless rates;
• Lack of reserve, urban, and combined policies debilitating (both for housing and homeless);
• Unique drivers/pathways remain unexplored or poorly understood:– the Indian Act; – jurisdictional and coordination issues;
– residential schools; – child welfare; – social marginalization/isolation, systemic discrimination and stigmatization;
– individual “ruptures” or impacts/traumas (Thurston & Mason 2010).
• Jurisdictional infighting leaves Aboriginal peoples in a policy void;
• Living in substandard housing both reserve and urban;
• Youth are particularly vulnerable (i.e., simply preparing for homelessness);
• * Reserve survey needed to capture extent of the problem.
First Nations & Aboriginal
Homelessness in Canada:
A View from the Field
Dr. Yale D. Belanger University of Lethbridge
