Urban aboriginals are more likely to be hungry and homeless than any other group in Canadian cities, a pair of recent studies has found.
The National Aboriginal Housing Association released a report last week showing how off-reserve Indian, Métis and Inuit Canadians were over-represented amongst homeless populations. A report last week from the University of Alberta shows how urban aboriginals have low levels of food security.
Many of these people are single parents with kids, said Noreen Willows, professor of community nutrition and author of the University of Alberta report, which means either they or their children are going hungry. "Canada is not protecting the people who are most vulnerable," she said. "Children are at risk."
No home
Three out of four aboriginals in Canada live off reserve, according to the housing association report. The federal government does not support off-reserve housing, with the one-time $300 million Aboriginal Housing Trust of 2006 being the notable exception.
Racism, poor education and the legacy of residential school abuse keeps many migrants out of good jobs and homes in the city, said Charles Hill, executive director of the National Aboriginal Housing Association. "Homelessness has grown immensely, and it's especially so in aboriginal people." They also lose out on the federal supports they had on reserve such as subsidized housing.
One in five urban aboriginals are in core need of housing, the association's report found, compared to just one in eight for non-aboriginals. (Core-need refers to families that spend an unaffordable amount on housing, which the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Association defines as anything over 30 per cent of their income.) Aboriginals represent five per cent of Edmonton but 38 per cent of its homeless population.
No food
Those aboriginals are also more likely to be short on food, Willows found. Her study, which was based on about 34,000 Canadian households in the recent Canadian Community Health Survey, found that about 33 per cent of urban aboriginals had some degree of food insecurity, meaning they either did not have enough food to eat or were worried they would not in the near future. Just nine per cent of non-aboriginals were in that situation. Aboriginal families with three or more kids were also 2.6 times more likely to be food-insecure than comparable non-aboriginal families.
This hunger puts kids and parents at greater risk of depression, nutritional deficiencies and other chronic conditions, Willows said. Mothers are particularly at risk, as they will often go without food to ensure their kids can eat.
Food bank research reflects these numbers, according to Suzan Krecsy of the St. Albert Food Bank. About 33 per cent of Alberta's food bank users are aboriginal, according to Food Banks Canada. Many are also diabetic and can't find the healthy food they need at the bank.
Some hope?
Krecsy is unsure of why so many aboriginals were going hungry. "That's the $64,000 question," she says, one she and the Alberta Food Bank Network Association hoped to study next year with aboriginal leaders.
Income is likely a major factor, Willows says — aboriginals were much more likely to be in the lowest income bracket than other Canadians, she says. Many were also on social assistance, receiving far less money than they needed to cover food and rent. "It's food security linked to poverty," she concludes.
Hill called for the creation of a permanent $386 million fund to improve social housing and get more aboriginals into home ownership. Home ownership will help aboriginals get jobs, counselling, income and free up social housing for others who need it. "If you've got a home, you're not homeless."
Hill's report can be found on the association's website. Willows' is available in Public Health Nutrition.
