[Indigsol] Welcome to British Columbia's Third-World ghetto: Ahousaht

[Ben Powless]

  Welcome to British Columbia's Third-World ghetto
 Within a UNESCO biosphere reserve, the Ahousaht First Nation live in
ramshackle, mould-infested housing, an extreme example of conditions on
reserves across B.C.

By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
February 8, 2009 7:01 AM


  [image: Denise Titian walks up the dock on her way to visit her daughter
in Ahousaht, a small, isolated reserve surrounded by the ocean and
mountains.]

 Denise Titian walks up the dock on her way to visit her daughter in
Ahousaht, a small, isolated reserve surrounded by the ocean and
mountains. *Photograph
by: *Debra Brash, Times Colonist, Times Colonist
http://www.timescolonist.com/Health/Welcome+British+Columbia+Third+World+ghetto/1266689/story.html

The water taxi slices through the thin veneer of ocean ice, past the islands
rising out of the morning mist, into the inlet, where forested mountains
sweep down to the rocks.

Approaching isolated Flores Island, in the heart of the Clayoquot Sound
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the water is dotted with abandoned, half sunken
boats, a legacy of the vanished First Nations fishery.

The sign overlooking the dock, which should say Welcome to Ahousaht, is
missing two letters, telling its own story of the troubled community where
up to 800 members of the Ahousaht First Nation, out of a registered
population of 1,876, live in a village of mouldy houses and rotting
buildings.

Less than one hour away from the tourist attractions and expensive resorts
of Tofino is B.C.'s version of a Third World ghetto, where crumbling homes
flank muddy, dirt roads and several generations pack in under one roof
because of the shortage of habitable housing.

Ahousaht is an extreme example of the housing misery that plagues many First
Nations reserves across Canada. Here, on this small island, problems are
magnified because of isolation, high unemployment, the collapse of
traditional fishing and forestry industries and shoddy homes never designed
to withstand wet, West Coast weather.

"Look at the houses. We are a disgrace to the Government of Canada. We have
mouldy houses and people are getting sick. It's like a Third World country,"
said Ahousaht housing manager Paul Frank.

Most of the 148 post-and-beam houses on the 368-hectare reserve were built
in the 1960s and 1970s with Indian Affairs funding and the rest were built
between 1990 and 2004 with INAC funding and Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation subsidies. The majority of the homes are owned collectively by
the band, which pays off the mortgages by charging rent to band members.

However, it is a struggle to get people to pay their rent because of the
condition of the houses, said Chief Keith Atleo, explaining that the band
has to make up the difference by taking funds destined for other programs.
"With the elders and people with bad health problems, we help out."

The old houses do not have proper foundations and "are really just four
walls and a couple of rooms," Atleo said.

The newer homes are more elaborate, but conditions are little better.

CMHC picked the contractor to build the homes -- a company that has since
disappeared, Atleo said.

"The material was not good quality; their job standards were not up to par,"
he said, adding that inspectors didn't catch key issues, such as the fact
that some houses have ventilator covers on roofs and outside walls, but no
actual vents.

According to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, since 1984, all
construction on reserves must meet building codes. "Some of the houses in
the older part of the community were built to standards of the time, which
included wooden foundations on concrete blocks," said spokeswoman Valerie
Barrett.

With no drainage systems, mould problems started almost immediately, Frank
said.

"At first I tried to wash the mould off with bleach, but it came back," said
Shirley John, 69, who has lived almost her entire life in Ahousaht and is
struggling to survive in the old house that wasn't designed to withstand an
annual rainfall of more than three metres.

"Shirley needs a new home," said band councillor Curtis Dick. "But we are
quoted $200,000 a home and we're going to receive $40,000 from INAC. Where
do we come up with $160,000 for an elder on a fixed income?"

Ahousaht is a community struggling to get a grip on its social problems,
whether alcohol abuse or teen suicide, and where leaders are trying to plan
for a different future. But hope mixes uneasily with the realities of
mushrooms growing in the bathroom, toxic, black mould spreading across
ceilings and down walls, and holes in floors and walls.

Inside the band office, signs offer a snapshot of difficulties faced by the
community where unemployment is more than 60 per cent and there is little
money to fix the most urgent problems.

"If you are intoxicated or on drugs you will not receive your (welfare)
cheque today," one notice says.

Nearby is the pest control list where residents ask for help eliminating
everything from cockroaches and ants to outsize rats.

"Big, huge rats. Cat won't do its job," says a scribbled note.

Five of the mouldiest houses, among 106 assessed by Health Canada in 2005,
have been condemned, with residents moving into transitional housing or
shoehorning in with relatives. The band received word this month that
federal funding of $42,000 a house would be available shortly to demolish
those homes and rebuild.

The band's dreams centre around plans for a new village site, with proper
drainage and culturally appropriate homes, built of cedar, with overhangs to
protect from the weather and room for extended families.

"The old townsite has springs underground. We want to move to where it's
drier," Frank said.

"Indian Affairs put us here. No one knew how wet it was," Atleo added.

The new townsite was used for a residential school until it burned down
about 1940. The land, which the government sold to a forestry company but is
now back in federal control, is expected to be transferred to the band this
month.

Initially, about 40 houses are planned, and the community would be involved
in design and building. The site has room for 180 new lots.

However, infrastructure costs alone would be about $5.6 million -- a cost
that would have to be shared by the federal government and the band.

"We're working through the costs with INAC right now," Atleo said. "We want
to go to outside sources. Some of our people want to go into the tourist
industry and try and get money for new houses."

Deputy chief John Frank said the band wants to be self-sufficient, but says
it is limited by unemployment. The band controls a few small woodlots, and
has a limited ability to fish -- no commercial troll licences are being
handed out in the area, meaning band members can fish only for food and
ceremonial purposes.

"We looked after ourselves for thousands of years. We don't want the
taxpayers to look after us," he said.

Since 2002, INAC has provided $3.7 million to Ahousaht including $1.6
million for mould-related work, after Health Canada identified serious
concerns, Barrett said. The mould funding financed assessments of houses,
studies to improve drainage, the construction of seven homes for residents
of condemned houses, and the remediation of eight mouldy homes.

But Atleo argues the money could have been better spent -- he said INAC
insisted on having its own consultants assess the mouldy homes when the band
had previously brought in inspectors.

"They said they needed their own information. It's sad. We could have had a
lot of homes with the money INAC wasted," he said.

During the last fiscal year, INAC has approved $737,628 in additional
targeted funding for capital projects in Ahousaht. Targeted funding is
usually used for projects such as infrastructure and housing.

Atleo would not say how much the band receives annually from government for
all its programs, but INAC spokesman Karl Freeborn said the 10 member
nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, of which the Ahousaht band is
a member, divided up $27 million in annual funding for programs and social
development.

- - -

NATIVE HOUSING SERIES

JUDITH LAVOIE & LINDSAY KINES

TODAY: The sorry state of First Nations housing on reserves across B.C. and
Canada is hardly a secret. Governments, consultants and chiefs agree it's a
national disgrace, yet the crisis persists.

MONDAY: The elephant in the living room -- how serious issues are
overshadowed by the visuals that accompany them: neglect, mess and
uncleanliness.

TUESDAY: How poor designs, shoddy construction, and lax oversight created
reserves full of of rotting, mould-infested homes.

WEDNESDAY: Aboriginal people pay a high price for poor housing -- their
health.

THURSDAY: The crisis isn't limited to reserves -- First Nations account for
one in three homeless people in B.C.

FRIDAY: How three bands are changing the tide by bankrolling their own
projects, requiring more accountability and relying on solid leadership.

SATURDAY: What needs to be done -- two First Nations chiefs and two
politicians offer their prescription for the future.

jlavoie at tc.canwest.com
 __._,_.___


-- 
"In life we meet extraordinary people who follow us wherever we may go" -
Trisha Nagpal
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