Both on- and off-reserve homelessness must be solved

The recent federal government announcement of $638 million to address urban Indigenous housing is a welcome contribution to the issue of Indigenous homelessness.

Yet, according to people who work on programs in the field, it is not enough to address the basic causes.

While affordability is often cited as the root cause of urban Indigenous homelessness, the most intractable cause is overcrowding — homelessness by another name — on First Nations reserves across the country.

Rates of overcrowding are six times greater on reserve than off. It’s not uncommon to have three generations living under one roof and, in many homes, couch surfers come and go on a regular basis. Yet these living arrangements are not called homelessness.

Overcrowding on reserves is not by choice but by necessity. Eighty per cent of reserves have median incomes below Canada’s poverty line and housing opportunities on reserves for low-income families and single people are few and far between.

It is estimated that 50 per cent of First Nations people are living away from their home communities. Many migrate to urban centres because they don’t have housing solutions available on-reserve.

According to Chief Dan George of the Ts’il Kaz Koh First Nation in Burns Lake, B.C., most First Nation leaders never relinquish their responsibility for citizens living away from their home communities, and as part of this responsibility, never stop striving for housing options to offer those who want to come home.

In Chief George’s words, “It is a goal of our council to ensure that all the members of our community have suitable housing options wherever they choose to live.”

But government housing program policies and regulations have created a siloed approach to the provision of Indigenous housing, leaving huge gaps between the programs on reserves and those in urban centres where many of the homeless have fallen.

By looking at Indigenous housing as a successful service to individuals rather than as program delivery as the chief suggested will be an effective first step toward finding solutions to Indigenous homelessness both on and off reserves.

In British Columbia, the B.C. First Nations Housing & Infrastructure Council (HIC), a group of First Nations housing specialists, has been mandated by the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and the First Nations Summit to create a made-in-B.C. First Na- tions housing and infrastructure authority.

While its primary focus is on-reserve housing, the HIC is working toward harmonizing on- and offreserve housing options so First Nations people will have continuous housing services as they move between communities.

The work starts with changing the narrative and calling on-reserve overcrowding what it is — homelessness — and then working together with urban Indigenous housing providers and governments to take a holistic look at the problem.

We won’t solve urban Indigenous homelessness without dealing with on-reserve homelessness and without understanding how the one is inextricably linked to the other.