In the early 1990s Canada’s national media trained its investigative lens on poor reserve-housing conditions, exposing the depth of what was then described as a crisis. This did not provoke Ottawa’s effective response even if the heightened attention did prompt First Nations and Aboriginal leaders to greater levels of political advocacy, which improved public awareness leading Canada’s Auditor General to study the issue in 2003.¹ Unfortunately no substantial policy changes resulted and national reserve-housing conditions continued their decline. Poor housing is linked to growing national Aboriginal homeless rates both on and off reserves as well as staggered economic development, inferior health standards and diminishing educational outcomes (Belanger, 2007; Belanger et al, 2012b; Canada, 2015; Christensen, 2013; Ruttan et al, 2008; Weasel Head, 2011). All the same, characterizing the federal, provincial and territorial governments – and by association Canadians in general – as unsympathetic would be extreme. Between 2006 and 2013 the Government of Canada provided $2.3 billion in on-reserve housing support to First Nations, which contributed to an annual average of 1,750 new units and 3,100 renovations annually (Canada, 2013). It would seem that Canadians are demanding improved Aboriginal housing conditions even if bureaucratic efforts to date have failed to translate into practical community outcomes. In May 2015, for instance, the CBC reported that the federally sponsored $300-million First Nations Market Housing Fund established in 2008 had produced 99 new reserve homes to date – out of a proposed target seeking 25,000 privately owned dwellings by 2018 (Beeby, 2015). With this in mind one must critically reflect upon: one, why the aforesaid housing conditions continue to deteriorate and, two, why Canada’s response demonstrates little sense of urgency. Therefore the starting point for this discussion is to explore Canada’s Aboriginal housing policy, which may appear somewhat unorthodox in a book discussing the growing importance of establishing systems approaches to ending homelessness. However, by exploring federal Aboriginal housing policy we can produce insights that help to clarify why reserve homelessness and urban Aboriginal homeless rates continue their rise, and this is essential to developing informed homelessness policies and intervention strategies.
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The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is the largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada. The COH is the curator of the Homeless Hub.
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About UsCanadian Observatory on Homelessness
The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is the largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada. The COH is the curator of the Homeless Hub.
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- Introduction
- 1. Program and Service-level Collaboration
- 1.1 Coordinated Access and Assessment: Calgary, Alberta
- 1.2 Where’s the CASH (Centralized Access to Supported Housing)?: Evaluation of a Single Point of Access to Supported Housing
- 1.3 Cross-sector Case Management: Experience of EMRII, a Mixed Team Working with Homeless People
- 1.4 A Response to Homelessness in Pinellas County, Florida: An Examination of Pinellas Safe Harbor and the Challenges of Faith-based Service Providers in a Systems Approach
- 1.5 Vignette: The Bell Hotel Supportive Housing Project: Early Outcomes & Learnings
- 1.6 Vignette: 1011 Lansdowne: Turning Around a Building, Turning Around Lives
- 2. Systems Planning for Targeted Groups
- 2.1 Women First: An Analysis of a Trauma-informed, Women-centred, Harm Reduction Housing Model for Women with Complex Substance Use and Mental Health Issues
- 2.2 Service Coordination for Homeless Pregnant Women in Toronto
- 2.3 Communities of Practice as Locations for Facilitating Service Systems Improvement for Northern Homeless Women
- 2.4 Vignette: Northern Housing Networks: Collaborative Efforts to Develop Innovative Housing Programs for High-needs Indigenous Women in Northern, Remote Communities
- 2.5 Creating a Community Strategy to End Youth Homelessness in Edmonton
- 2.6 Coordination at the Service Delivery Level: The Development of a Continuum of Services for Street-involved Youth
- 2.7 Vignette: A Transdisciplinary Community Mental Health Program Providing Clinical Care to Street-involved Youth in Hamilton
- 2.8 Vignette: Youth Reconnect: Systems Prevention in a Crisis Model
- 3. Inter-sectoral collaborations
- 3.1 Preventing Youth Homelessness: The Need for a Coordinated Cross-sectoral Approach
- 3.2 A 10-Year Case Study Examining Successful Approaches and Challenges Addressing the Determinants of Homelessness: The Experiences of One Canadian City
- 3.3 Homeless In, Homeless Out and Homeless Zero: Using System Dynamics to Help End Homelessness
- 3.4 Building Research Capacity to Improve Services for the Homeless: An Integrated Community-academic Partnership Model
- 3.5 Collaborative Approaches to Addressing Homelessness in Canada: Value and Challenge in the Community Advisory Board Model
- 3.6 “What is Needed is the Mortar That Holds These Blocks Together”: Coordinating Local Services Through Community-based Managerialism
- 3.7 I’ll Tell You What I Want, What I Really, Really Want: Integrated Public Health Care for Homeless Individuals in Canada
- 3.8 Vignette: Addressing Homelessness Among Canadian Veterans
- 3.9 An Evaluation of the London Community Addiction Response Strategy (London CAReS): Facilitating Service Integration Through Collaborative Best Practices
- 4. High-level governance challenges and opportunities
- 4.1 Systems Planning and Governance: A Conceptual Framework
- 4.2 The Strategic Response to Homelessness in Finland: Exploring Innovation and Coordination within a National Plan to Reduce and Prevent Homelessness
- 4.3 A Critical Review of Canadian First Nations and Aboriginal Housing Policy, 1867 - Present
- 4.4 Interagency Councils on Homelessness: Case Studies from the United States and Alberta
- 4.5 System Planning: A Case Study of the Calgary Homeless Foundation’s System Planning Framework
- 4.6 The “First City to End Homelessness”: A Case Study of Medicine Hat’s Approach to System Planning in a Housing First Context
- Conclusion
- Exploring Effective Systems Responses to Homelessness
- 4. High-level governance challenges and opportunities
- 4.3 A Critical Review of Canadian First Nations and Aboriginal Housing Policy, 1867 - Present