Homelessness cannot be entirely blamed on
the loss of housing or expensive housing only, it involves a lot of systemic
challenges. Homelessness however becomes more visible than other systemic
challenges encountered by people. Indigenous people have been overly
represented in the numbers of people experiencing homelessness. This is because
of colonial and neo-colonial oppression and exclusion. Below is a vicious cycle
of homelessness identifying the causes of homelessness beyond just inability to
secure housing. This cycle was created by Schmidt, Hrenchuk, Bopp, and Poole
(2015) on their study on trajectories of Indigenous women’s homelessness in
British Columbia. While it addresses them as causes of homelessness, this is
also the cycle to be used to amend the gaps that cause or put Indigenous women
at risk of being homeless. It identifies:
• Poverty
and social exclusion- Indigenous people were moved to peripheral areas, further
from their sources of food, spiritual connection and their land was taken away.
The Metis were left to fend for themselves, surviving through road allowance
and doing cheap labour.
• Inability
to find and maintain housing- Indigenous people were moved to reserves where
infrastructure and housing were not maintained well and receiving less funding.
Migration to the city brought more challenges ranging from racism to expensive
housing.
• Ineffective
services- Services offered to Indigenous people are not trauma informed and
services are not culture and language informed perpetuating racism in
institutions meant to help them.
• Unresolved
trauma- Indigenous people have faced trauma from residential schools,
oppressive policies and colonialism. Metis people are often excluded from
residential schools, but Metis people were admitted in residential schools
despite less records showing it.
The report on Advancing coordination of
Winnipeg homelessness sector of 2017 says, “Approaching homelessness is
described as a fusion policy issue because there is no one department, agency,
or body that is solely responsible for addressing it.” During my practicum, I
did a scan of organizations in Winnipeg that are actively involved in
homelessness. These organizations included shelters, health facilities,
community and resource centers and emergency facilities. The aim was to
understand the services they provided and how best they deal with the issues
raised in the vicious cycle.
Breaking the vicious cycle will take more
than just organizational intervention as it will require policy change. A lot
of housing initiatives have also been reactionary and thus there is need for
pro-active strategy. Reaching Home program brings about self-determination of
Indigenous people on housing. It is also a pro-active strategy that allows
communities to address issues that will reduce the risk of losing housing. It
is my hope that the implementation of Reaching Home program brings about
change and opens doors to permanent housing and addressing systemic gaps.
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