Thank you.
Good afternoon, members of the standing committee.
My name is Roxanne Harper. I'm originally from Natoaganeg First Nation located in the province of New Brunswick.
I am a board member with FNHPA, the First Nations Housing Professionals Association, and I'm joined today by our executive director, Ms. Candace Bennett. Both of us, I will let you know, are certified housing professionals.
The housing shortage that first nations face is not new. It has existed for many years and has, in fact, gotten worse due to the global pandemic. We know that 36.8% of first nations people living on reserve are living in what are considered overcrowded conditions. This is compared with 18.5% for those off reserve.
The housing shortage results from many things. Just to name a few, there is the increasing demand for housing assistance, chronic underfunding and inadequate human resources. Every day on reserves in Canada, first nations are confronted with the reality of the housing shortage. We know that some of our people, our elders, our children, our women and our families live in overcrowded and often unsafe conditions. This is not just a first nations problem. This is not just an indigenous housing problem. This is a Canadian problem requiring all of us to share in the solution.
At FNHPA we are a national professional association exclusively serving the needs of individuals who are working or aspiring to work in the first nations housing industry. As the only national association for first nations housing, we are dedicated to filling long-term capacity development gaps, addressing educational requirements that lead to certification, providing training and development and, of course, working with like-minded organizations and associations that can also help to support our members.
We have today identified three key issues directly related to the housing shortage that we believe are impacting first nation communities. The first one is that first nations require dedicated financial support to hire and retain qualified housing staff. We are requesting that the Canadian government designate long-term funding for first nations housing positions. Doing so would allow our communities to protect both people and property.
At this point in time, first nations must self-fund housing positions. This is often done by cobbling together special initiatives or any proposal-driven funding available by the federal government. This approach results in inconsistencies, inequities, and even worse, in some communities no housing staff at all. As housing deals with health and safety, it cannot be effectively done by an already overburdened administration at the first nation or on the corner of the desk by our chief and council.
At this point in time, we call upon the federal government to support long-term funding for these positions. We believe our communities would immediately view it as an investment and it would improve the quality of lives for first nations people.
In addition to that, housing staff would require dedicated and long-term financial support to continue their capacity development and to continue to access educational programs and training. These opportunities are often cost-prohibitive and not easily accessible. This is especially true when we look at the location of first nation communities and realize that most educational opportunities are available outside of the community.
If the federal government were to provide this support, first nations would immediately be able to increase how they can attract and retain qualified staff and plan for the future development of our staff, which would improve how we respond and react to the housing crisis. We believe that first nations need and deserve this level of support and, again, it would be viewed as an investment in our communities.
Third, we agree with many of our colleagues here today that it is time for a new approach to northern, remote and special access communities. We believe this is necessary. We know that housing needs are significant, that the building cost is greater and that human resources are stretched to the limit. The designs in many northern communities are often inadequate. We face a short construction season, and even something as simple as the lack of connectivity to access education and training.
We believe a better solution exists and we urge the Canadian government to redesign its approach.
As a final note, at first nations levels we are aware that our people are leaving the community to access better housing off reserve. This has an impact on both our cultural community and we know they go off reserve and apply to already overburdened aboriginal housing programs that exist.
On behalf of FNHPA and all our membership, we thank you for the opportunity to be here and we look forward to working with you to find real and lasting solutions.
Wela'lin.