$6-billion ask: Housing support needed for Indigenous people living away from community

Several years ago Deborah Baker struggled to find somewhere to live so her sister graciously let her and her two daughters move into her studio apartment in North Vancouver.

“At the time I was on income assistance, looking for an apartment for me and my girls, knocking on doors. And right away, when I’d say I was in income assistance, they’d say, ‘Sorry, it’s not available,'” said Baker.

“There was a stigma and just this discrimination, very subtle, around just having to share my income source.“

Eventually, the Squamish mother had to move to Nanaimo because she couldn’t find anywhere to live in Vancouver.

“Coming out of a domestic violent relationship and just trying to find yourself is so difficult. But when you have the right support systems, like my (family), it makes a huge difference,” said Baker.

Baker was lucky to find support in family, but many people who are in situations similar to hers aren’t as lucky and require additional supports.

For Indigenous people living off-reserve and away from community, housing supports are fewer and farther between. And the organizations that provide support are doing the best they can with limited space and budgets.

Across Canada, over 60 per cent of Indigenous people live off-reserve and away from community in urban (population over 1,000) areas. The majority of direct funding however still targets on-reserve and in community housing.

While provincial budgets vary, federally, Budget 2022 allocated $2.4 billion over five years for housing for First Nations on reserves. While the budget also proposed to invest $300 million over five years through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to co-develop and launch an Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy, some have called the federal government’s actions on this a failure.

Now working on an MBA, Baker is the executive director of the Aboriginal Mother Centre Society (AMCS), helping mothers like herself.

Among the many programs they run is a transformational housing program, which includes 16 suites for mothers and their children who are at risk of homelessness or child welfare intervention in the city.

The program is always running at full capacity and focuses on ensuring children remain with their mothers in a safe and secure environment while providing culturally relevant supports.

Last year, AMCS worked with a mother and her children to provide wraparound supports that eventually helped reunite the family.

“She participated in all our programs, she actually went to school part-time, was able to get B.C. housing and reunite her family,” said Baker. “She’s an amazing parent. She absolutely loves her children. And I’m just very, very proud of her.

“We let all of our former residents know that we have outreach, we have community engagement. So you’re welcome to continue whatever programs or support you need. We’ll always be here for you.”

And that’s how they make things happen, by continuing support, regardless of where people are. And while AMCS’s work is transformative, the work requires funding and they’re currently stretched thin.

1:07 Supportive housing facility under construction in Vancouver

The centre is a member of the Aboriginal Housing Management Association (AHMA), a social housing management agency with members across B.C. In 2022, the AHMA released its own Indigenous housing strategy because it deemed that what was being done by the government wasn’t enough.

Earlier this month at a press conference, the AHMA, along with several other Indigenous organizations, announced the launch of the National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Incorporated (NICHI) and called on the federal government to commit $6 billion in the 2023 federal budget to meet its commitment to develop an urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing strategy.

“We know (the Prime Minister’s Office is) focusing on the $100-billion ask towards health,” AHMA’s CEO Margaret Pfoh said referring to Trudeau’s recent funding offer to help fix the country’s struggling health care system.

“And we all know that housing, especially over the past three years through COVID-19, through fires, through floods, through climate emergencies, that housing is the panacea. So if we were to say to you that we know of a $6-billion investment towards housing would save $10 billion in health care and other services, we would ask all of you to support our ask to all of the premiers and leaders at all levels of government.”

Indigenous people experience higher rates of homelessness and housing instability and organizations are fighting for more dedicated funding to keep folks housed.

“Investments in affordable housing must include funding for culturally relevant community resources, health services, and education to break the systemic cycle of housing insecurity that has left so many Indigenous families behind,” Pfoh added.