‘Our housing needs to grow’: St. Catharines advocates want more help for Indigenous communities
Elizabeth Sault from the Niagara Regional Native Centre says we need to look at the biases that exist in the community
What was once a saving grace for Mary Ellen Simon has now become more of a burden.
The Indigenous woman rents a large home in St. Catharines that fit her late son’s wheelchair he used after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
“I had a child that was very ill, so housing was a saving grace for us because the rent geared to income could flex so that I could stay home, if necessary,” she said.
Unfortunately, her son died late last year. Now Simon is stuck with a large house that she says she can’t move away from. Simon’s eldest son, partner and their baby still live with her.
“I am the lease holder, and there’s a policy that says I can’t pass the lease on to my adult children that have grown up in the same house. So, if I wanted to move out of the city for work, my children would be homeless.”
Faced with that dilemma, she’d be stuck between choosing a job and a home for her son’s family.
“I’m not going to leave them homeless, especially in a market like this where everything is so terribly expensive and them being young, it’s harder for them to obtain a lease.”
She said another problem her family faces is a lack of intergenerational wealth.
“You can’t even buy a house in the city anymore on a single income, so really the only options for us right now are to find a place that’s maybe a basement or a top floor of a home, for more than what I originally had a mortgage for,” she said.
OUT OF REACH: Niagara's housing crisis
Elizabeth Sault, healing and wellness co-ordinator at the Niagara Regional Native Centre, said there are many barriers in the way for Indigenous people to obtain affordable housing.
“Ontario works, ODSP, etc. is not enough to support a family,” she said. “And when you work as a member of the Indigenous community, you’re making half of what your non-Indigenous co-workers are making.”
For some of the assistance programs, there are credit checks, bank statements and other requirements that people must qualify for, and Sault said a lot of Indigenous people have trouble meeting the criteria.
“Just recently, one of our seniors from our communities said she could not get housing, so she pays $1,500 a month for a motel room,” she said. “The motel is asking an extra $200 a month for a mini fridge and a microwave.”
Sault would like to see an increase in funding for Indigenous housing. She said it’s impossible to house people in Indigenous specific housing, as the wait time is years.
“If you do not have a status card or belong to a community, you do not qualify for Indigenous housing,” she said. She said we need to take a look at the biases that exist in the community around Indigenous people.
Saleh Waziruddin, an executive member for Niagara’s Anti-Racism Association, said the region doesn’t do enough when it comes to housing discrimination.
“In the U.S., the government does paired testing, where they will send people who have the same qualifications on paper, but maybe one’s white and one’s Black or Indigenous, and they will see if the landlords discriminate,” he said. “That isn’t done here.”
“I think our Indigenous housing needs to grow; opportunities for Indigenous housing should be increased. I don’t think there’s enough,” said Simon.
“It’s a shame to see these families ended up in the Niagara region because they were displaced from reservations for whichever reasons, and now the cities say, ‘We can’t do anything either,’” said Simon. “It feels like they only want to capture high market rents, and everything is getting so expensive so how do you live?”
STORY BEHIND THE STORY: The housing crisis is having a big impact on every facet of life in Niagara. With that in mind, reporter Abby Green wanted to connect with those in the Indigenous community to hear about the unique challenges they face when looking for appropriate housing.
