PRINCE GEORGE – One little word has been top of mind for everyone, government and social service agencies alike. And that word is “housing.”
And that is the focus of a gathering of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations in Prince George this week. And the challenge often in northern and rural B.C., is adequate resources to address housing.
“Just, you know, this imaginary line on-reserve /off-reserve,” says Michael Sadler, Executive Director of the First Nations Housing and Infrastructure Council. “So just go talk, break some bread. Listen to what their concerns are. And we need to have that reciprocity happen right. Because it’s just like a marriage. You can’t you can’t go into a marriage and expect all these great things to happen if you don’t communicate. So we need to do that. And that needs to happen in a big way. And I don’t think is happening as well as we could.”
Mayor Simon, you opened the event for whom housing is a personal issue.
“We need to work together as one people. First Nations Housing Group, Provincial Government. B.C. Housing. Municipal government. We provide infrastructure. We need to find a solution. A permanent solution to address this issue seriously and the time to talk is over.”
Sadler says while housing projects like the commonly known as the Urban Village, may work in some places like Prince George, there is no cookie-cutter solution to First Nations housing. As has become abundantly clear as the issue of homelessness is more on the spotlight than ever before, is that often it is tied to other issues.
“There’s no magic bullet, and they’re all interconnected,” says Sadler. “Homelessness might lead to addiction. Addiction might lead to homelessness and so on and so forth. So that’s where we need to have a variety of different ministries and programs to be able to work with us to help address that issue. Mental health. We don’t know how many people are struggling with something that is a diagnosed mental health issue. We don’t know if drugs or alcohol help contribute to that or vice versa. We don’t know that.”
He says before the issues of homelessness can be addressed purposefully, there needs to be a clear picture of who needs help.
