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Inadequate Housing and Crowded Living Conditions - #3 of 8 Key Issues
Indigenous People face the worst housing outcomes in the country. Hon. Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations [1] To understand the...
Did you know that adequate housing was recognized in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Did you know almost one in six Indigenous people lived in a home in need of major repairs in 2021 [1], a rate almost three times higher than for the non-Indigenous population, and more than 17 percent of Indigenous people lived in crowded housing?
Those stats are not for a developing country. Those stats are for Canada, which holds the 9th spot in the top 25 economies in the world in 2022. In 2014, James Anaya, then-Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, noted that housing in First Nation communities had “reached a crisis level.”
On-reserve housing situations vary from community to community. While some communities do have an adequate supply of good-quality homes, that is not the norm. Generally speaking, those communities with their own source of revenue and high employment have good-quality housing. This article is about the issues prevalent in the communities that don’t have the benefit of own-source revenue or high employment.
Some background on the federal government’s role in on-reserve housing:
In the 1960s, what was then Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) implemented a housing program that provided subsidies to assist with home construction and renovation on reserves. A 1982 evaluation of this program concluded that by then, the federal government’s “role in the delivery of houses was … residual.” In 1996, the government developed the housing policy that is currently in place, known as the On-Reserve Housing Policy. Communities that choose not to opt into the On-Reserve Housing Policy continue to operate under the 1960s subsidy program. Today, the federal government provides on-reserve housing support to First Nation communities primarily through funding and programs offered by AANDC and by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). [3] Note: AANDC is now Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs and Crown-Indigenous Relations.
The lack of adequate on-reserve housing has many contributing factors and many repercussions. Here are 8 things you need to know about on-reserve housing issues.
The eight issues identified here are bullet points from the larger, more complex issue of on-reserve housing. If you are interested in an in-depth look at on-reserve housing issues, please read HOUSING ON FIRST NATION RESERVES: Challenges and Successes Interim Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples.
This article was originally posted on February 12, 2018
[1] Housing conditions among First Nations people, Métis and Inuit in Canada from the 2021 Census
Featured photo: Little Grand Rapids, First Nation reserve in Manitoba, Canada. Photo: Shutterstock
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Indigenous People face the worst housing outcomes in the country. Hon. Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations [1] To understand the...
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