Alexis members build community unity

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With well under $200,000 a year in federal housing money and a 1,300 member, largely young population living in overcrowded conditions on the Alexis reserve, Chief Francis Alexis was used to hearing "We need more housing."

Realizing they will always be stuck with a housing shortage at the present rate of construction and being all too aware of the limitations of the government purse, the chief decided to try something new: Ask their own people to work-unpaid-to save on labor costs and put up twice as many houses for the same money as before.

The reward for the ones who volunteer to work is they get priority on the housing list. The real payoff for the community, though, is not just new houses. It's restored pride in being independent of government; it's a rejuvenated work ethic; and it's feeling good about themselves because they are living up to the Elders' teachings about caring, sharing and harmony, the chief said.

"I am challenging the people. I am doing something (about the housing shortage); I need help and support," said Chief Alexis.

He makes the analogy of how ants and bees work: "They work together; one does not build a community. We've lost that connection," the chief said.

He added everyone's help is needed to bring that connection back, and he would be spending his two weeks' holidays working alongside the other volunteers.

"People don't have to get paid. Seeing their children and family properly housed is the payment," he said.

Chief Alexis said that despite large amounts of money spent on job programs, they have little to show for it.

The goal is to build 20 houses on the existing infrastructure; probably a dozen the first year.

"If we really have unity and are working together, we can accomplish things. I have faith in my people-we have the skills," he said.

Percy Potts, an advisor on the project, said that although the rate of volunteering was "moderate," they had only just started and he expected people would get excited about helping once they saw what they could do themselves.

Housing manager Hal Alexis said they are putting up five bedroom houses with a capacity for 10 people. To accommodate that many, they want to make sure the structures are sound, so "we're exceeding code" in the construction, Hal Alexis said.

Hal Alexis, who has been a carpenter since 1982, estimates that at $27,000 for a materials package and $25,000 for the foundations and labor for the things they can't do themselves, it will cost "just under $60,000 to build" a house using mostly volunteers.

On Aug. 24, INAC's deputy minister, Gordon Shanks, and field services officer Shawn Melnychuk were out to view the work site.

Melnychuk commented, "I've heard other reserves talk about doing something like this; I don't know of any chief that's taken it as far."

Nelson Lumber has donated some of the tools for construction and Burle Butler, the general manager of the band-owned ABC Construction Co., has loaned the project a generator.