RECONCILIATION: MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER - APPENDICES
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COVID-19 has emphasised the urgent need to provide more housing to reduce overcrowding, but also when thinking about housing design, Indigenous organizations need to have the flexibility to build larger units to allow larger families to live safely together without crowding.. 4. Accountability to Non-Indigenous organizations regarding collaboration. There are assumptions that non-Indigenous housing providers and local social service providers are collaborating with first nations and Indigenous Organizations. However, the reality on the ground is, with limited funding available, organizations often put in a position where they are competing for resources to provide services in the community. It has become clear that local non-Indigenous organizations who are currently offering housing and housing supports via BC Housing, are feeling threatened by an Indigenous organization like ours that is trying to build capacity to serve off reserve Indigenous people. How can Indigenous Organizations develop capacity to provide Indigenous services to Indigenous people if we are met with ongoing challenges, lack of cooperation, lack of communication and lack of collaboration or support from those that are supposed to be our local partners? We believe that if BC Housing wants to see meaningful change and reconciliation for Indigenous people, we need to expect more from Non-Indigenous Organizations. This means requiring these organizations who are funded by BC housing, to show meaningful engagement, support and collaboration with Indigenous Organizations. These organizations should be required to collaborate and to share their knowledge and expertise that they have developed because of the funding that has been provided to them by the Province for many years. Unfortunately, we believe that without using policy tools around collaboration and partnership building, such as funding and reporting requirements, BC Housing cannot expect that non- Indigenous Organizations will support local Indigenous organizations to be successful with housing programs and developments. The result of requiring local organizations to get on board with the value of Indigenous organizations housing their own people is what will allow our agencies to face less challenges and reach our goals of become leaders in this area. A few things that initially came up when reviewing the document: • The report was well built and articulate. • When I read the report, I didn’t see representation from the ground. I think it could be seen as a report written on the bureaucratic level. • When you hear about housing management it is quite concerning. There should be more urgency.
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