If the housing crisis from the pandemic has become particularly acute across the country, it has long plagued Indigenous communities.
“Indigenous people are disproportionately affected by poor housing conditions,” Statistics Canada recalled in its report published last year.
Natives are more likely than non-Natives to report living in overcrowded housing.
They are twice as likely to live in a home in need of major repairs and three times more likely than non-Aboriginals to have mold in their home and unsafe water.
The Assembly of First Nations (AFN), meeting in Congress this week in Montreal, estimated an investment of $44 billion would be needed to meet the needs.
Last March, Canada's auditor general, Karen Hogan, said she was “absolutely dismayed to see how little the situation has changed” in 20 years.
Between 2018 and 2023, Ms.me Hogan.
“We want nothing more than other Canadians want,” AFN's Manitoba regional leader Cindy Woodhouse told Radio-Canada last year.
“We need good water, good shelter, a safe house. And we shouldn't be crammed into a house with 30 people. »
