Good afternoon.
This is Kelly Benning. I'm the president of the National Association of Friendship Centres.
I'm joining you virtually today from northern Alberta, home of the Cree, Beaver, Dene, and Métis people in Treaty 8 territory.
I want to thank the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs for the opportunity to speak on the effects of housing shortages on urban indigenous people.
I would also like to thank the other speakers who have come today and acknowledge the essential work that they do for the community. Together, our work addresses the critical issues of housing and homelessness that impact our communities and will continue to impact our people if community-led, indigenous responses are not implemented.
Most Canadian cities are built on traditional indigenous gathering spaces. As long as there have been urban centres, there have been indigenous people living there. According to the 2016 census, more than 1.6 million people identified as indigenous. More than one million, or over 60% of those people, live in urban environments. Urban indigenous people make up the largest portion of indigenous people, yet we are often left out of the conversation when it comes to issues or legislation that directly affects us.
The distinctions-based approach that the federal government uses in policy, legislation and decision-making is intended to recognize the diversity of the three first peoples of Canada and how their needs, wants, governments, cultures and world views differ. However, there are nuances within indigenous identities. For example, there are layered identities that many of us experience in addition to our identities as first nation, Inuit or Métis, such as gender, location, residency, sexual orientation, age and abilities.
From an urban and service-delivery experience, a distinctions-based approach result is often an inconsistent patchwork of funding, which makes indigenous organizations compete against each other. By prioritizing only distinctions between first nations, Inuit and Métis people, the Government of Canada has no mechanism to see or address the full spectrum of indigenous people's experiences, which ultimately compromises our ability to have our full set of human rights realized.
Since the 1950s, friendship centres have been central in urban indigenous community growth and flourishing by providing programs, services and gathering spaces for our friends and families. Friendship centres across Canada provide a wide range of housing and shelter options, including emergency crisis shelters, violence prevention, homeless shelters, transitional housing, supportive housing and long-term housing. In addition, our work includes crucial wraparound supports such as food, security, employment and training, child care, before- and after-school programming, health care services and counselling, among others.
Friendship centres partner with many organizations to provide the most support to the most people, because community members rely on us. The lack of safe and affordable housing contributes to poor health, chronic illness, homelessness, increased risk of premature death and the breakdown of families. Indigenous and community-led wraparound programming, such as the programs mentioned above, is an effective approach to addressing the housing and homelessness crisis in urban indigenous communities across the country. Housing and homelessness continue to be the central focus of friendship centres' work.
Yesterday's announcement of $300 million for the urban, rural and northern housing initiative is not enough to meet the needs of urban indigenous people. The national housing council recommended $6 billion for the urban, rural and northern housing initiative. The National Association of Friendship Centres has offered and remains committed to playing a role in ensuring those funds are administered by indigenous people for indigenous people and organizations.
In our budget ask, we sought funds to make up the infrastructure funding gap in friendship centres, whose costs include major repairs, renovations and securing space for lands and to require...the demands of the community. The national association applied for funds to support friendship centre-wide housing plans wherein we plan to collect data and information on housing needs, including forecasting for every community in which there is a friendship centre. We were denied funding to do this important work.
There are great urban indigenous and—