Siksika continues to face housing crisis

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Siksika Nation continues to experience a profusion of displaced citizens, as hundreds of names remain on the waiting list for accommodations – four years after the raging Bow River floods snowballed an already wretched housing situation.
According to the Siksika Nation Council, over 300 families – or roughly 1,200 people – are currently waiting to receive a home. Having found shelter in trailers, among family members and outside reserve lands, the desperation for residents formerly on the waiting list and those left down and out from the floods is causing a dispute regarding priority.
“The housing department used to build 15 houses a year, but they haven’t built in years because of the rental program that was designed,” said Siksika Nation Councillor Ruben Breaker. “You pay rent and that money was to help repairs and renovations, but that structure didn’t go well. So any money that came to us (relief funds), they were using for repairs and renovations. So that backlogged a lot of the housing selections.”
An estimated 10 per cent of housing on the reserve – Canada’s second largest in area – is deemed uninhabitable. While 134 homes were destroyed during the 2013 floods, over 50 homes were in desperate need of renovations. Breaker said in a lot of cases, members living in those homes faced addictions, and when other needs took priorities, bills and responsibilities were ignored, resulting in loss of heat and power. In turn, those residents took up shelter elsewhere, usually among family members, leaving the living quarters vulnerable to vandalism and destruction. To prevent further damage, the units were boarded up and are still waiting to receive upgrades, which council members said is lacking funds.
“There are still green-coded houses that were affected by the flood, but they didn’t get condemned,” said Siksika Nation Councillor Carlin Black Rabbit.
“I would say there’s at least another 25 to 30 houses that people shouldn’t be living in on the reserve. We heard about it with the Flood Relief Committee when they coded all the houses. There are some houses that got lost along the way.”
The Siksika Flood 2013 Resident Housing Plan colour coded houses in four colours based on their severity: black, red, yellow and green. The plan included moving residents of black and red homes into a relief shelter, then a new neighbourhood home, and finally into a new permanent or their own home with an expected timeline of one to two years. Those in yellow homes would go from a shelter straight to owning a home, and those with green coded homes would not be put up in shelters or a new neighbourhood home, and would receive their own home also within one to two years.
The 2013 flood was described by the Alberta government as the worst in the province’s history. The environmental event called for 32 states of local emergencies, caused five deaths and displaced over 100,000 people in the areas affected.
To combat some of the immediate housing needs, Siksika was approved by the First Nations Market Housing Fund, which provides funds to qualified individuals able to renovate, purchase or construct their own home on Siksika Nation reserve lands.
As the situation remains dire, Breaker suggested that a possible solution may require enforcing the rental program to access those funds for renovations and repairs as was originally intended. Breaker also added that some units are near completion and will allow for residents to move in and hopefully show improvements in the waiting lists.