By Cheryl Jahn

Youth housing “in a crisis”

Oct 26, 2023 | 3:43 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Katisha Paul is from Richmond, while Ashley Ball is from Lower Post. Two very different landscapes and youth perspectives around housing have become of keen interest to the BC Assembly of First Nations.

“I think it’s really important to understand that they have a different perspective. They’re dealing with different issues and I think getting into the housing market is an issue and, you know, the affordability is not there,” explains Regional Chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations, Terry Teegee. Many youth are couch-surfing.”

Recurring themes were the availability fo affordable housing, sky-high rents, banks’ reluctance to open their doors to a mortgage. Paul says there’s a major crisis for youth and housing.

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“I, myself, have moved 22 times in my life and, for the most part of this current year, I was sleeping on my grandparent’s couch. And that’s the story I hear time and time again.”

It’s a different story in Lower Post where Ashley Ball works to find housing. But the housing there is subsidized.

“So that’s great,” she says. “Three thousand dollars to live in a city really isn’t feasible. Outside our community, rent can be two thousand dollars.”

The fact it warranted a presentation at the Housing Summit speaks to the issue. So what can the Assembly do to help?

“Various public policy, municipal government, provincial governments, and federal governments to allow First Nations, whether they’re in urban centres or not need to get additional funding,” says Teegee. “I think to adopt the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous people to acknowledge our sovereigntyand self-determination when it comes to housing.”