Northern Quebec faces housing crisis

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A housing crisis is worsening in the Cree communities of Northern Quebec at the same time as government funding is slashed for new homes.

More than 1,000 Crees are now on waiting lists for housing, and 100 more are added to the lists each year. Funding for new homes was effectively cut in half in the last federal budget. Last year, 73 new homes were built, a number which fell to 49 after the budget.

"Overcrowding is acute in most of the communities," says a report on the housing crisis in the Cree communities submitted to the Annual General Assembly of the Grand Council of the Crees, held in Wemindji in early August

The report says many Crees live in condemned housing and about half the houses need repairs. It would cost about $32 million to bring the houses up to Canadian standards.

In Wemindji, one house has four families sharing it, while in Eastmain there is a house with five families living there. Mistissini has 419 more families than houses; one house in the community with only 832 square feet has 16 people living in it.

Waswanipi has 60 per cent of its families living in over-crowded houses.

Whapmagoostui has a total population of 564, with 345 people living in houses with more than one family.

"Most of these houses ? if not all ? have only one kitchen and bathroom for multiple family occupancy," says the report, prepared by researchers Cristiane The and Vir Handa.

"One can imagine the turmoil every morning before the children go to school with each mother trying to feed and bathe their own and the adults going to their jobs."

The researchers add that privacy is needed for good mental health, and lack of privacy "is the cause of many needless conflicts."

They warn that the Cree population is young and when these people grow up, this will create even more strain on limited resources in the near future.

The overcrowding causes the houses to wear out much faster than houses in the rest of Canada, which means more money is taken up by repairs, the report says. The designs of the houses also don't take into account the conditions of the North and severe winters.

Cree delegates at the AGA in Wemindji voted to create a regional housing commission to deal with the housing crisis more effectively.

"It's disgraceful," said Bill Namagoose, executive director of the Grand Council of the Crees, when housing funds were cut last spring. "Native people have the most deplorable living conditions in the country. They live in Third World conditions, have the highest suicide rate and a lot of the social breakdown is caused by overcrowding. Nobody is doing anything about it."

Observes point out that other First Nations with less resources than the Crees are even worse off. The House of Commons committee on Aboriginal affairs said in 1993 that 40,000 housing units need to be built or renovated across the country to bring the situation to Canadian standards. The estimated cost was $3.3 billion, an amount that is rising as the crisis deepens.