By Sierra Sim, Madi Boisclair, & Youssef Abou

OVERREPRESENTATION OF

HOW MANY INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ARE

HOMELESS IN CANADA?
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ARE 11 OF URBAN
TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE CANADIANS THAT
HOMELESS THAN NON- REPORTED BEING

29%
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE. HOMELESS ARE OF
(Agrawal et al., 2021) ABORGINAL
Canada faces a national DESCENT.
crisis in Aboriginal (Homeless Hub, n.d.-b)

homelessness.
Indigenous people
Aboriginal Canadians are represent 4% of the
not only more likely to population in Canada. This
become homeless, but also makes them
less likely to use shelters and
overrepresented in the
other support services, and
more likely to remain urban homeless population
homeless. by 7.25 times.
(Leach, 2010)

"A good government is one

with a duty
to help

everyone, to maximize his

or her potential:
Indigenous

people, people with

disabilities, and our
forgotten families. We will
not leave anyone behind."
-Warren Mundine

35% 30.6%
OF THE YOUTH
OF THE INDIGENOUS HOMELESS
HOMELESS POPULATION
POPULATION ARE WOMEN
ARE INDIGENOUS
compared to 27% of the (GVCEH Staff, 2020)

non-Indigenous homeless There is a significant impact and interaction

population. between Indigenous youth homelessness and
experiences with the child protection system.

(Homeless Hub, n.d.-a) (Kidd et al., 2019)

Indigenous People
Need Our Help!
No other Canadian group Has intergenerational trauma due to colonization or residential schools
affected your homelessness?
experiences the same degree of
homelessness as Indigenous "Yes. My grandmother ran away with her children, from Saskatchewan to the bush in

Canadians are disproportionately western Alberta. From what we now know was the Indian agents. She hid her family
and feared institutions and authority. Her children did not go to school...she was so
poor and vulnerable to poor but never went to "welfare" for help because she feared they would take her
homelessness. kids. Never trusted the police because they were there with the Indian agents.

(Leach, 2010, Aboriginal History section)

This fear kept her and my family in hiding..untrusting of people, that fear prevented

them from asking for help and as a result, they suffered immensely.
Uneducated and in poverty, abused and afraid.
As adults, still silenced, when my family broke down.. no one talked about it..and no
one looked for me when I was gone for fear they would be in trouble. When I came
back I felt so disconnected and unloved I never went to them for help either.

This fear silenced all of us and my family, and my own self suffered immensely due to
those fears"
. - Treaty 6 Metis Women
 WHY ARE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
HOMELESS IN CANADA?

“Indigenous peoples
are among the most
disadvantaged and
discriminated against
human beings in the
world.”
-Lotte Hughes
(Hughes, 2012, p. 59)

THE CRISIS OF Indigenous homelessness is not

INDIGENOUS only defined as "a lacking of
HOMELESSNESS IN structure of habitation".
Indigenous homelessness must be
CANADA IS A DIRECT
understood from a non-colonial
RESULT OF lens which ecncompasses
COLONIALISM. Indigenous worldviews.

High rates of homelessness INDIGENOUS HOMELESSNESS

amongst Indigenous peoples in INVOLVES "INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES
Canada is a consequence of AND COMMUNITIES ISOLATED
historical and systemic trauma, FROM THEIR RELATIONSHIPS TO
oppression, racism, and LAND, WATER, PLACE, FAMILY,
KIN, EACH OTHER, ANIMALS,
discrimination, and the exploitation
CULTURES, LANGUAGES AND
of Indigenous land and populations.
IDENTITIES.”

(Monchalin, 2016; Leach, 2010;

(Homeless Hub, n.d.-c)

Homeless Hub, n.d.-b; Kia et al., 2020)

THE WAYS THAT CANADA'S THE IMPACTS OF

HISTORY OF COLONIALISM HAS COLONIALISM ON
HARMED INDIGENOUS PEOPLES INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN
INCLUDE: CANADA INCLUDE:
Displacement From Traditional
Intergenerational Trauma
Lands
Lateral & Community
The "Indian Act"
Violence
The Sixties Scoop
Homelessness
Missing & Murdered Indigenous
Poverty
Women and Girls (MMIWG)
Mental Illness
Residential Schools
Drug & Alcohol Addiction
Long-Term Drinking Water
Systemic Racism &
Advisories
Discrimination

(Leach, 2010; Monchalin, 2016; Homeless Hub, (Leach, 2010; Monchalin,

2016; Homeless Hub,

n.d.-b; Agrawal & Zoe, 2021) n.d.-b; Agrawal & Zoe, 2021)

BECAUSE OF SPECIFIC ISSUES (SIXTIES SCOOP,

MMIWG) INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND YOUTH ARE THE
MOST VULNERABLE TO THE IMPACTS OF COLONIALISM.
(Monchalin, 2016; Kia et al.,2020; NWAC, 2018; WNHHN, n.d.)

STRUCTURAL ISSUES CREATED BY AS A RESULT OF STRUCTURAL

COLONIALISM THAT IMPACT ISSUES, INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN CANADA CANADA DISPROPORTIONATELY
INCLUDE: EXPERIENCE:
TRANSITION FROM RESERVES TO LOWER LEVELS OF EDUCATION
URBAN LIVING POORER MENTAL &
RACISM & DISCIRMINATION PHYSICALHEALTH
LANDLORD DISCRIMINATION HIGHER RATES OF UNEMPLOYMENT
LOWER LEVELS OF EDUCATION HIGHER RATES OF VIOLENCE
AND EMPLOYMENT LOWER INCOME RATES
HIGHER INCARCERATION RATE HOMELESSNESS
(Monchalin, 2016; Homeless Hub, n.d.-b; (Monchalin, 2016; Homeless Hub, n.d.-b;
Agrawal & Zoe, 2021) Agrawal & Zoe, 2021)

Due to an ongoing legacy of colonization that has specifically targetted

Indigenous people through structural inequalities and systemic racism,
Indigenous people across Canada are disproportionately impoverished
and at risk of homelessness, especially Indigenous women and youth.
(Leach, 2010; Monchalin, 2016; Homeless Hub, n.d.-b; Kia et al., 2020)
 WHAT HAS BEEN DONE AND SHOULD BE DONE
TO STOP INDIGENOUS HOMELESSNESS IN
CANADA?

Involvement of Indigenous
elders and children and
traditional teachers youth are 15 times
can provide cultural
more likely to be
advice and
guidance to the
in government
research team to care than non-
ensure that Indigenous
Indigenous children and
perspectives are youth.
incorporated. (Bingham et al., 2019)

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE:

“Homelessness programs designed, delivered and governed by Aboriginal
people have better outcomes."
Involve all levels of government; Emergency shelter services;
Engage stakeholders in developing Client participation in service delivery;
programs: people living on the Mental health, physical health, detox and
streets, chiefs and councils, elders, dental services;
service providers and non-profit Affordable, supportive transitional and
organisations; permanent housing;
Culturally appropriate staffing and
Support evidence-based solutions
training;
and the research to develop
Peer, community and family supports;
evidence;
Discharge planning at correctional
Gather information by building
institutions;
relationships in communities and
Education, skills development,
participating in “talking circles”;
employment and income support services;
Develop a database identifying Transportation for accessing employment
numbers and gaps in services. and services.

(Leach, 2010, A Call to Action section)

WHEN FOCUSING ON INDIGENOUS YOUTH HOMELESSNESS, EDUCATION MAY BE A

PROMISING AREA OF UPSTREAM INTERVENTIONS

(Ansloos, Wager, A. C., & Dunn, N. S. 2022).

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE:

3 Step Medicalized Child welfare system
Model:

The government put an

1. Downstream interventions
seek to increase access to the
social determinants of health
2. Midstream interventions seek
to change the causes of effects
by reducing exposure to
negative health factors
3. Upstream interventions seek to
eliminate the “causes of the
cause” by reforming how social
and economic structures
“distribute wealth, power,
opportunities, and decision-
end to residential schools
52.2% Indigenization of the
of children in the child community and systems so
welfare system are
that Indigenous people can
Indigenous.
(Government of Canada, 2020a) be better understood and
treated appropriately
Truth and Reconciliation
Hiring more Indigenous
people
(As of May 15, 2018, Indigenous people
represented 4% of police officers in Canada)

making"

Healing lodges
(NCCDH, 2014, p. 2)

SYSTEMIC RACISM

Against Indigenous women Colonialism and residential

"Colonization has created the schools
conditions by which Indigenous Not renting to Indigenous
women experience
disproportionate rates of violence,
people
but also the conditions which Police interactions with them
prevent them from accessing on the streets
relevant supports and services.” Drunk tanks
Colonialism continues
(NWAC, 2018, Moving Beyond section)

Pathways initiative
Charges and petty arrests
(Aulakh, H., 2022)