Donald Peter Prevost settled in at the Cool Aid Society housing in Rock Bay last fall, a more comfortable place than the van he once called home.
Through winter cold and summer heat, Prevost slept in the van, owned by his daughter, outside of her home at Evergreen Terrace. He even stayed there as he recovered from gall bladder surgery.
It鈥檚 not that the formerly homeless man wasn鈥檛 welcome inside. But the subsidized housing policy at Evergreen Terrace did not allow for visitors longer than 14聽days. With five kids, his daughter couldn鈥檛 afford to risk losing the family home, which meant he could not stay there.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 so bad,鈥� said Prevost, a member of the Namgis First Nation from Alert Bay.
His daughter鈥檚 family lost their home and all their belongings, including his family photos, in a Nov. 18 fire that displaced 35 people.
That was the official count. It did not include people who were couch-surfing, staying with friends, or, like Prevost, sleeping in the parking lot.
Counted or not, indoors or not, he still lost his home to the fire.
鈥淢y heart just sank,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 had all my pictures of the kids when they were small.鈥�
Aboriginal people such as the Prevost family face additional challenges in getting housing, whether they are a large family looking for space or a single person at risk of becoming homeless.
鈥淭he number of homeless who identify as aboriginal in Victoria is disproportionately higher than the approximate five per cent of the aboriginal population in sa国际传媒. The stats range between 20 and 35 per cent and sometimes higher,鈥� said Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi, executive director of Victoria鈥檚 Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness.
The organization holds talking circles to engage aboriginals facing homelessness about barriers and challenges they encounter.
鈥淧articipants have pointed to a number of challenges regarding securing housing: racism by rental property managers, feeling like they are under the microscope at all times, not having enough funds through social assistance to pay the rent, and having so many rules that they are likely to fail, especially in relation to addictions, curfews and having friends and family visit,鈥� she said.
鈥淚 have heard this sentiment often: 鈥業 was in ministry care, then to 鈥榡uvie鈥� as a teen, then to jail. Now I鈥檓 housed and the cameras, curfews, and rules are my prison.鈥櫬犫��
Hunt-Jinnouchi said a perpetual lack of housing on reserves is part of the problem. It is not the only reason people leave aboriginal communities 鈥� many leave for work, education and other opportunities, but struggle in urban centres.
She added that affordable housing dollars do not trickle down to the people she works with as they are often geared toward families.
鈥淭he residue of colonialism, the Indian Act, and particularly residential schools and the cycle of being in foster care have had far-reaching inter-generational consequences,鈥� she said.
鈥淚n many cases, indigenous people experience displacement and dislocation, physically and spiritually, and often feel like they聽don鈥檛 belong in either world 鈥� indigenous or western mainstream.鈥�
M鈥檃kola Housing Society is a Langford-based organization that provides affordable housing for aboriginal people across the Island and in northern sa国际传媒
鈥淲e work hard to meet the needs of the family members we serve by operating in a culturally respectful way. We like to promote that as an Aboriginal housing provider we do things differently,鈥� said chief executive officer Kevin Albers. But this can be challenging, he said.
鈥淎boriginal people often have larger families and require larger homes with more bedrooms. There are also many single aboriginal people looking for housing and a lot of aboriginal affordable housing is geared toward families,鈥� said Albers, noting affordable housing developers are aware of this and working to address it.
He said it is best for affordable housing providers like M鈥檃kola to have rules, such as a guest limit policy, because occupancy helps determine subsidies and there are occupancy standards and safety regulations for the homes.
鈥淔amilies qualify for affordable housing through a calculation of household income and family composition. Which ensures our homes and the families we house are not overcrowded,鈥� he said.
For Prevost and his family, it would be ideal to have a larger home either through ownership or in a subsidized development.
That way, he鈥檇 get to spend more time with his grandchildren and pass the days with company, he said.
