Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 91: Change government definitions of social housing and affordable housing to mean rates that are affordable to people on social assistance, and rents that are income-geared not market-geared.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 92: Funding initiatives to end homelessness must be more inclusive of Indigenous women. Implement the existing recommendations of Homes 4 Women and Women’s Shelters Canada on making homeless initiatives and funding structures more gender-equal.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 93: Federal funding for homelessness needs to go beyond Housing First initiatives to better suit the diverse needs of Indigenous women. Housing First funding must also have less eligibility criteria and longer timelines.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Recommendation 94: Extend the provincial Shelter Allowance for Elderly Renters (SAFER) to housing charges in nonprofit cooperative housing, and extend SAFER grants to the amount of rent increases.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Build social housing and transition homes

Recommendation 95: Immediately build 10,000 affordable social housing units per year in B.C., with an additional 1000 units each year. These units must be self-contained units of at least 400 square feet with bathrooms and kitchens.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Build social housing and transition homes

Recommendation 97: Any new social housing must consider the needs of Indigenous women, such as adequate space for children and extended families, cooperative housing models, accommodating cultural and ceremonial practices, equipped for mobility devices and accessibility for elders, and with integrated services such as child care, free laundry, and programming on-site.

Recommendations for safe and affordable housing for Indigenous women in the DTES

Legislative protections

Recommendation 103: The provincial Residential Tenancy Act needs to be amended as follows:

1. The Act must cover all housing, including residents of social housing, nonprofit SROs, supportive housing, and temporary modular housing. People living in supportive housing should not be subjected to restrictive rules that violate their basic tenancy rights.
2. The Act must tie rent to the unit, not the tenant, so landlords cannot renovict tenants to increase rents. The Act must also tie landlord rights to increase rent with obligations to maintain property and to comply with orders made by the Residential Tenancy Branch.
3. Extend the ‘right of first refusal’ to tenants to return at their renovated unit at the previously payable rent in order to prevent renovictions. Also extend right of first refusal to all tenants, not just those living in residential complexes of more than five units.
4. When evicting a tenant on grounds that the landlord or a close family member intends to move in, require the landlord to file a statutory declaration indicating their relationship to the family member and that they intend to occupy the unit for at least six months.
5. Extend the grace period for non-payment of rent to 20 days; eliminate the Direct Request Process for non-payment of rent; and allow arbitrators discretion to consider contextual factors and refuse an order of possession for failure to pay rent.
6. Provide tenants the right to a warning before getting an eviction notice for cause and require automatic dispute resolution hearings for all evictions, where landlords initiate eviction proceedings by applying with the Residential Tenancy Branch in order to receive a registered eviction notice and schedule a mandatory hearing.
7. Develop a property maintenance policy that outlines a breadth of health, safety, and security standards.
8. Create more robust enforcement mechanisms at the Residential Tenancy Branch to stop fraudulent evictions and to ensure landlords are adhering to maintenance obligations; amend criteria and lower the threshold for accepting investigation requests; increase the deadlines and expand the grounds for Review Consideration; and introduce a wider breadth of penalties that are imposed more often.

Recommendations to keep Indigenous families together in the DTES

Recommendation 111: Implementation of and full funding for federal Indigenous Child Welfare legislation that is attentive to specific First Nations, Metis, and Inuit needs. Ensure that Indigenous nations resume sole jurisdiction—and not simply service delivery—over child welfare for child-members of the nation who are on reserve and off reserve. This is in accordance with the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Recommendations to keep Indigenous families together in the DTES

Recommendation 112: In full partnership with First Nations, INAC must immediately:

1. Fully redress the inequities and structural problems of funding for First Nations children.
2. Support funding and policy options proposed by First Nations for child and family services.
3. Ensure that a formal compliance and reporting program be established specifically for the First Nations Child and Family Services Program.

Recommendations to keep Indigenous families together in the DTES

Recommendation 113: We applaud the work of Dr. Cindy Blackstock and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and call on the federal government to comply with the legally-binding orders of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to:

1. Immediately and fully apply Jordan’s principle to all First Nations children living on and off reserve.
2. Apply Jordan’s principle based on the need of the child and not limited to the normative standard of care.
3. Ensure that administrative delays do not delay service provision and respond to most cases within 48 hours.