Opinion: Homeownership is critical to solving Indigenous housing crisis

financialpost.com:

Many Indigenous communities in Canada are in crisis because of a severe shortage of adequate housing. According to a forthcoming study by the Assembly of First Nations and Indigenous Services Canada, First Nations reserves require $135 billion to address this deficiency. And that doesn’t include housing shortfalls in Métis settlements and Inuit communities, which could push the total need much higher.

The consequences of this mass housing shortage are devastating. Indigenous families must either live in crowded and dilapidated housing and cope with the resulting social problems or leave their communities to seek better living conditions and a better future elsewhere.

An underappreciated cause of this crisis is Indigenous families’ inability to own their own homes, in part because reserve land, whose title belongs to the Crown or the First Nation, cannot be pledged as collateral for housing loans. But it’s also because the housing subsidized by the federal government in these communities has primarily been social housing. In the rest of Canada, in contrast, the government promotes personal homeownership with government-subsidized mortgage insurance, home-buyer saving plans and other policies. Homeownership is generally viewed as good for community well-being and social stability. As a result, approximately 70 per cent of families in the rest of Canada own their homes. In most Indigenous communities, however, the rate of homeownership is effectively zero.

This paternalistic focus on social housing underscores a lack of understanding of the substantial adverse social and economic impacts these discriminatory policies have, not just on Indigenous people but also indirectly on all Canadians. Poor quality housing contributes