Too soon for recommendations on housing

Nothing has changed.

That’s what Chief Theresa Spence told the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, which is studying housing and infrastructure on First Nations. Nothing has changed from 2010 when she first declared a state of emergency on Attawapiskat First Nation, located on the west coast of James Bay.

The committee released its interim report in February.

Attawapiskat leadership had called a state of emergency in December 2011, and previously in 2010 and again last year because of the membership living in unsafe housing, in tents and shacks as the winter approaches.

“It’s really a challenge that we face almost every year. Our community continues to face a critical housing shortage until this day,” Spence said when she appeared before the committee last September.

The interim report reiterates the issues Spence brought attention to with her six-week hunger strike in December 2012. The report acknowledges there is a “significant housing shortage in First Nation communities, and the existing stock of housing in many communities is in deplorable condition.” And while it identifies the challenges faced by communities, and highlights innovative practices that have helped some First Nations meet their housing needs, the committee offers no recommendations.

“It had been our intention to propose recommendations in this interim report, however the committee is continuing to hear important testimony on housing as it continues its infrastructure study. To make recommendations at this time would be premature,” noted the foreword of the interim report entitled, Housing on First Nations Reserves: Challenges and Successes.

In preparing the interim report, the committee heard from 40 individuals and organizations through 21 meetings held in Ottawa, a day of public hearings in Thunder Bay, and travelling to 16 First Nations communities in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. The committee also heard from federal departments and agencies.

Concerns outlined by Spence – overcrowding, substandard housing, mould and sewage contaminations, lack of clarity on who is responsible for providing and paying for housing – were echoed by presenters as well as what the committee saw in their community visits.

“The poor quality of housing and the overcrowding in many communities is a distressing situation,” reads the report.

Spence said overcrowding has far-reaching consequences. “Overcrowding has a significant impact on every area of our residents’ lives. They suffer from infectious disease, family conflict, even violence and disruption of education and employment. Children are suffering from infections — skin, respiratory, stomach. When they go to school, they cannot focus on school because they live in overcrowded housing. That’s a major impact on our children.. ..They witness family conflict and violence that is the natural result of families struggling to recover from the legacy of the residence schools while living in overcrowded, unsafe homes. Some have been removed from their homes, from their families and community because of unsafe housing.”

The committee concedes that although there is an acknowledgement of a “significant housing shortage on reserves,” the severity of that shortage remains unclear. The Assembly of First Nations pegs the shortage at upward of 85,000 units, but Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada says the figure is less than half of that, closer to 35,000 to 40,000. Due to projected population growth, the AFN says the housing crisis will hit 130,000 units by 2031.

Other discrepancy in figures include a Statistics Canada survey that said in 2006 44 per cent of people living on reserve claimed their homes needed major repairs. However, AANDC’s 2012-2013 departmental performance report says 82 per cent of First Nations housing was deemed adequate.

The committee noted a difference in the sites they visited, with northern locations, accessible by air, water, or winter road, facing more challenges to their housing and infrastructure needs than southern locations.

The committee stressed that it “consistently… heard that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to housing on reserve” as the way housing was managed differed from one reserve to another and reserve economics also played a role.

The interim housing report is the first phase of a two-part study being undertaken by the committee examining infrastructure on reserves. The committee is currently in the second phase of its study focusing on community infrastructure, including roads, bridges, water and sewer systems.

A final report with overall recommendations will be tabled at the conclusion of phase two.

Photo Caption: The committee visited a number of reserves across Canada, including the remote community of Ahousaht.