Housing problem worse than estimated

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The chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations heard that the number of houses required in First Nation communities as quoted by the national chief in his Getting Results Strategy paint too rosy a picture and the situation is bleaker than Phil Fontaine has stated.

Officials in the Assembly of First Nations Quebec region conducted a detailed study of what the state of affairs was in Quebec in regards to housing shortages. They discovered the numbers in just their province were more alarming than the national numbers quoted in auditor general Sheila Fraser's April 2003 report on First Nations housing, which concluded there was a 8,500 housing unit shortfall.

The Quebec delegation presented their data to the AFN executive on Dec. 8. The next day National Chief Phil Fontaine admitted his numbers will have to be reconsidered.

"I think we may have understated our numbers. The number we used was taken from the auditor general's report. We had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by the Quebec region last night. It was indicated that our numbers are low. In their region alone, I think it was 7,000 units that represented their backlog," he said.

As part of his $1.7 billion pre-budget proposal to the federal government, the details of which are contained in his Getting Results Strategy, Fontaine proposed that $200 million in new money should be allocated for First Nations housing.

The auditor general's report stated that more than half of the existing houses on reserve need some kind of renovation. The report also concluded that on-reserve homes are twice as crowded as the national average.

Fontaine estimated that the $200 million figure would allow three new houses per community to be built or 9.5 houses per community to be renovated.

Many chiefs told Fontaine that wasn't nearly enough.

Chief Wilfred King of Gull Bay First Nation urged the AFN to create a national housing strategy. He suggested that if new money was introduced to the housing area it would be throwing "good money after bad" to merely fix up the existing "inferior stock."

King recently declared a state of emergency in his community because so many of the homes are contaminated by mould and fungus.

"Based on our figures in Gull Bay, we need 50 new homes right now," he said. "We're doing our audit of the homes and it's coming back that, out of a current housing stock of 100, 50 of those homes may be deemed unfit for human habitation with the other 50 probably requiring some form of renovation. So in terms of the Gull Bay situation, the figure is probably quite low. I would like to know what the national office will do to assist those First Nations who face a very, very sad housing situation."

Sowalie Chief Doug Kelly said applying standard market practices to an area in crisis was not working.

"The social housing program is killing our communities. My community is a very small community and it's in incredible debt in part because of social housing. We have a kind-hearted community that has a difficult time with rental arrears and collection of said rental arrears which puts us in Dutch with [Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation]," he said. "Amazingly enough, when interest rates are high, so are the subsidies. When interest rates are low, so are the subsidies. I don't get it. It was supposed to be affordable housing and it's not working."

Kelly had some advice for the national chief.

"When he's considering additional resources for housing, at the same time he should encourage the government, encourage the minister of Indian Affairs, and the minister responsible for social housing to revisit the current program. Revise it such that it accommodates its objectives and it provides affordable housing to the people that need it the most," he said.

Chief Roberta Jamieson of Six Nations, the most populous First Nation in the country, also said Fontaine's numbers weren't high enough. Her community has 1,500 people on the waiting list for housng and three additional houses will not make much of a difference, she said.

"No, it's just not remotely what's needed and I know the national chief and the executive know that," Jamieson added.

A former Six Nations chief, Bill Montour, spoke to the assembly as a proxy. The former regional director general for the department of Indian Affairs also spent time working for the department on housing. He had some interesting numbers to add to the discussion.

"I'm two years retired from the department of Indian Affairs as national housing director. What I've found is that housing is the greatest cause of debt to First Nations. I'm going to give you stats of what I've been able to try and understand. In 1996 Canada did a study on the housing policy that said we need 114,000 new units of housing to be built by 2004," he said. "Over the past eight years, there should have been 14,250 houses built across Canada [each year]. In 2003, we have approximately 89,000 houses on reserve in Canada. Therefore we need to build 25,000 more houses before the end of the fiscal year 2004/2005."

He said his research showed that money had been allocated to the department, but it hadn't made it out to the communities.

"An average of 2,000 houses are built using INAC dollars each fiscal year. This fiscal year, 2003/2004, the main estimates of Parliament allocated $157 million to housing. Therefore, using the $19,450 of the original housing subsidy that is still there, theoretically we should be building 8,094 houses per year but because we only build 2,000 houses a year, using the $19,450 per house, the department would have spent $38.8 million this year," he said. "The question I think leaders of First Nations in Canada should ask is: Where has the other $128 million gone to?"

Montour has been rumored to be the leading candidate to lead any housing institution created by the AFN. Former Indian Affairs minister Robert Nault said he'd heard that Montour already had the job. AFN sources sy he has not been hired. But he clearly believes that an institution that would manage housing for First Nations is needed.

"We have to have institutions that are First Nations owned and operated to deal with that. Because there's 13 departments of the federal government that are allocated $8.3 billion this fiscal year of Indian money. When that money is allocated by Parliament for the use and benefit of Indian people, that's our money. We should be taking care of it," he said.

Phil Fontaine told Windspeaker he believes the new prime minister is willing to look at allowing First Nations to take over control of housing.

"We're told that one of the priorities of the Martin government will be housing, that they will be prepared to inject serious money into the housing situation," he said

He was asked if Martin's transition team had alerted him to any big changes that might be coming.

"I'll make two points. We've gone forward with the proposition that Indian Affairs and CMHC get out of the business of Indian housing and that, in the field that's vacated by these two departments, we establish a First Nations housing authority that would be responsible for what Indian Affairs and CMHC does now. We'd be responsible, for example, for setting standards and codes, providing capital. The process, as much as this is possible to do, is to de-politicize that particular matter. We would have regional components, regional housing authorities controlled by First Nations. The jurisdiction that would be exercised would be First Nations. There have been no arguments about this. In fact, what we've heard has encouraged us to move further on this proposition," he said. "The other is transferring the responsibilities that are currently Indian Affairs responsibilities. We've talked about transferring those over to First Nations' governments. On that issue we haven't heard a discouraging word from anyone."

Had he received any firm commitments?

"Well, I think these two propositions ar matters that the Martin government will be prepared to sit down and talk to us about. When you look at the federal allocations from Indian Affairs now, 80 per cent of that is directly administered by First Nation governments," he said. "When we talk about transferring the remaining responsibilities that are currently held by Indian Affairs, other than the fiduciary, that can happen fairly easily in my view. The department of Indian Affairs is still a fairly large bureaucracy with close to 4,000 people."