Canada’s Housing Promises To Indigenous People: Why No Action?

By
Rosemary Foulds
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Wendake Quebec's central meeting place, paved with coloured stones set in concentric rings
Place de la nation huronne-wendat photo by Pofortin is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed
Central gathering place in the Indigenous community of Wendake, Québec. Wendake has pioneered a social financing tool to provide decent housing for their members.

When it launched in 2017, Canada’s National Housing Strategy vowed to do right by Indigenous People. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s landing page for the National Housing Strategy states that Indigenous groups are

  • a priority area for action
  • among the most vulnerable populations in the country
  • to realize the shared outcomes that the NHS expects to achieve

Seven years in, there hasn’t been much to show for these ambitions. Why is it so tough to move forward?

This question is particularly puzzling for Jean Vincent, and Lance Haymond. They have direct experience of indigenous-led housing programs that have been in operation for decades. To help those of us who don’t share familiarity, they’ve written an article in Policy Options to give us a flavour of what they have achieved.

Vincent and Haymond are calling on the Federal government to acknowledge the success of these programs and build on what works.

Read more in Policy Options: Yänonhchia’ would draw on First Nations’ proud history of sustainable housing