The Indigenous Housing Caucus was established in 2013 at our annual Congress on Housing and Homelessness in recognition of the large number of Indigenous-led and Indigenous-serving organizations who are members and wanted to work together for better housing for northern, rural, and urban First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples. Indigenous housing and homelessness service providers across the country face a number of challenges to which the Indigenous Caucus is responding with resourcefulness, good management and innovation.

Since 2013, the Indigenous Caucus has grown both in size and influence, becoming a credible body for developing and providing Indigenous policy advice on housing and homelessness.  The Indigenous Caucus meets together in person once a year at Indigenous Housing Caucus Day.  Throughout the remainder of the year the interests, feedback, advice, and recommendations communicated on Caucus Day is represented and actioned by CHRA’s Indigenous Housing Caucus Working Group.  The Working Group assembles via monthly conference calls to advise and provide Indigenous perspectives on emerging national housing and homelessness issues to CHRA, as well as provide advocacy support and propose research projects exploring various facets of Indigenous housing and homelessness issues.

• Tim Crooks, CHRA Board President, and Executive Director, Phoenix Youth
• Patsy Kuksuk, CHRA Regional Director for the Northern Territories, Nunavut Housing
• Margaret Pfoh, CHRA Regional Director for B.C., and CEO of Aboriginal Housing Management Association
• Richard George, President of the Vancouver Native Housing Society
• Susan McGee, CHRA Regional Director for Alberta, and CEO of Homeward Trust Edmonton
• Robert Byers, CEO Namerind Housing
• Christin Swim, General Manager of Skigin-Elnoog Housing Corporation
• Shaun Simms, CHRA Director At-Large, Vice President, People, Culture and Communications, Ottawa Community Housing Corporation
• Phil Brown, former CHRA Board President
• Louise Atkins, former volunteer CHRA Indigenous Caucus Coordinator
• Cora McGuire-Cyrette, Women's Representative, Executive Director of Ontario Native Women's Association

TERMS OF REFERENCE

The Terms of Reference for the Indigenous Caucus were updated in September of 2019. It sets out the responsibilities of the Caucus, when meetings occur, membership, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the Working Group which leads the operational affairs of Caucus.

Read Terms of Reference 2019 (PDF)
Election Process and Application Form (.docx)

ANNUAL REPORT

Download CHRA Indigenous Caucus Annual Report 2019-20 (PDF)

ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH

The Indigenous Caucus is an invaluable resource which helps inform and support broader CHRA advocacy and research with respect to Indigenous housing issues.

Submission of a brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs

In March 2022, the CHRA Indigenous Caucus submitted a brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs that outlines the unique challenges faced by urban, rural, and northern Indigenous housing providers and calls on the government to implement a co-developed and Funded Urban, Rural, and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy.

Read the brief.

A For Indigenous By Indigenous National Housing Strategy

In June 2018 CHRA and CHRA's Indigenous Housing Caucus Working Group released a "For Indigenous, By Indigenous National Housing Strategy" calling on the government to address the housing needs of urban, rural and northern Indigenous families and individuals, including the disproportionate representation of Indigenous Peoples living in homelessness and core housing.

Read the full Strategy (.pdf)

The federal National Housing Strategy unveiled in November 2017 committed to working toward co-developing three distinctions-based First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation housing strategies. However, the Government of Canada's distinctions-based approach risks creating a large service gap for the 87 per cent of Indigenous Peoples not living on reserve lands, but in the urban, rural and northern parts of Canada.  To eliminate the service gap, the paper asserts that the federal government must acknowledge and fund a fourth strategy for Indigenous households in need of housing in urban, rural and northern areas.

2020 Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Report

In late 2018, the CHRA Indigenous Caucus commissioned a report and survey that looks at the state of urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing in Canada, and provides recommendations on a path forward to improve its state. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Indigenous Services Canada provided funding to undertake the work and hired Daniel Brant and Catherine Irwin-Gibson to produce the report overseen by the CHRA Indigenous Caucus Working Group. The report stresses that urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing is facing dramatic challenges in the face of ongoing demand and pressures, but the report also identifies solutions and ways to address these challenges.

Read the Report (.pdf)

2017 Policy Paper

The "For Indigenous, By Indigenous" Strategy is the culmination of a two-year process involving the Indigenous Caucus. CHRA and the Indigenous Caucus' first iteration of a strategy to bring forward the housing needs of urban and rural Indigenous Peoples began at Indigenous Housing Caucus Day in 2016 and 2017. Following discussions and deliberations, as well as a broader research document, CHRA used the input gathered from Caucus Day delegates to develop a series of recommendations for a distinct urban and rural Indigenous Housing Strategy. The Indigenous Caucus submitted the policy paper containing recommendations to the Government of Canada in June 2017, which was widely shared and distributed to politicians and senior decision makers.

Read the Policy Paper containing Recommendations for an Urban and Rural Indigenous Housing Strategy (pdf)

Resolution to Support an Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy

1. Campaign – within Canadian society generally, and to the Government of Canada specifically – to adhere to the concept that the only acceptable outcome of the National Housing Strategy regarding Indigenous Peoples is to bring their housing standard to that of non-Indigenous Canadians within the next 10 years;
2. Call on the Government of Canada to commit the necessary resources to achieve this goal; and,
3. Call on the Government of Canada to develop a fourth Indigenous Housing Strategy to acknowledge, respect and address the housing needs of Indigenous households living in the urban, rural, and northern areas of Canada.

General Research

The following CHRA research projects, initiatives and reports relate to Indigenous housing, homelessness and intersecting issues.

Last Modified: March 2019