This is the final post covering the Tyee’s five part series about a green new deal for housing. The Tyee is based in Vancouver, where high prices are making housing unaffordable for more and more people who need to live there. The series is authored by Geoff Dembicki.1 Part 5 reports on Indigenous housing and climate change initiatives.
Too much of the housing provided for indigenous people in Canada is in a sad state. Many homes are overcrowded, in need of major repairs or do not have access to basic services such as potable drinking water. The housing situation can be added to other policies and programs that create barriers for First Nations, Metis and Inuit people. Geoff Dembicki reports some interesting initiatives to turn the housing situation around:
- Tiny homes have been built along the route of the trans-mountain pipeline, which is planned to traverse British Columbia.
- The Big River First Nation in northwest Saskatchewan crowdsourced funding to build a self sufficient tiny house.
- Leaders of the Nishnawbe Aski nation in northern Ontario have partnered with Together Design Lab at Ryerson University to investigate housing conditions and develop a sustainable housing plan for remote communities in northern Ontario.
Connection with the land is a common element in all of the examples in this article. Each of the people Dembicki interviewed links better quality housing to climate change campaigns.
Canada’s national government has introduced legislation to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. If it is passed, it would require that First Nations, Métis and Inuit people are involved in the processes to plan and implement housing programs. Given Canada’s history, the people Dembicki spoke with are understandably wary, but also hopeful.
This story should be useful to policy makers, decision makers and activists who are working to fix poor housing conditions. In addition to providing examples, it opens new ways of framing the issue and making it relevant to other groups. Read more at the Tyee: Indigenous Housing Solutions, Built on Empowerment
Footnotes
- Part 1 discussed at the relationship between the climate crisis and housing affordability. Part 2 took a look at what it might take to build a commitment to publicly funded green and affordable housing. Part 3 reported into a new approach to zoning that has been approved in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Part 4 recounted a David and Goliath battle in Brooklyn between a property developer and a local neighbourhood group.
