When new affordable housing is under consideration, community leaders can be apprehensive, fearing that the new housing will be a magnet. They worry that the housing will attract more people to move to the community and homelessness will rise.
In Canada, Indigenous people are overrepresented in homeless populations and often find themselves associated with the ‘housing as magnet’ story.
The report linked to this post helps to set some of these concerns in context. The report was commissioned by the Assembly of First Nations1. It provides insight about housing and homelessness among First Nations people on Indian Reserves2 and in rural and urban communities.
The information in the report about rural and urban communities identifies some pull factors, which reflect concerns about being a magnet. Things that encourage First Nations people to move to and settle in rural and urban communities include:
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- employment opportunities
- education opportunities
- housing opportunities
- kin connections, which provide a place to start
The report also identifies push factors, which drive First Nations people who live on Reserves to seek housing elsewhere:
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- Reserve populations are growing
- employment and education opportunities on Reserves are very limited
- very little new housing has been built on Reserves in the last 30 years
- some housing on Reserves has no indoor plumbing
- all of the existing stock is aging and in need of repair
- pretty well every house, regardless of condition, is occupied and often overcrowded
The report linked below provides leaders and community members with evidence about why a new affordable housing project will be attractive, and why more people might arrive. It also supports leaders and residents to join with newcomers to support
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- building more affordable housing in their community
- upgrading existing housing on Reserves, and
- building much, much more new housing to relieve overcrowding on Reserves.
The report discusses research from 100 sources, and offers insight on many other issues than the evidence given in the example above. It is of particular relevance in Canada, but may also be of interest to other countries with significant Indigenous populations, such as America, Australian, and New Zealand.
The research approach weaves Indigenous knowledge with conventional academic practices. The result is easy to read and understand. It is a useful approach to consider for researchers undertaking literature reviews.
You can read the report at the homeless hub: A First Nations Homelessness Literature Review
Footnotes
- Read more about the Assembly of First Nations and the people it represents here: Assembly of First Nations
- Read more about Reserves in the Canadian Encyclopedia: Reserves in Canada
