Current Problems:
Exploring Theme: "Homelessness"
Updates on this page: 20
November 12, 2024
Manitoba study shows Indigenous seniors struggling to find safe, affordable housing
Space for family, involvement in culture tops lists of most-wants Joanne Mason (left) and Lucille Bruce studied the housing options of Indigenous seniors in Winnipeg for two years. Photo: Haley Lamy APTN News: A growing number of Indigenous seniors are homeless before finding an affordable place to live in Winnipeg, according to a study released...
July 2, 2024
‘It’s an emergency here’: Yellowknife and the people who have no place safe to live
APTN News: Dressed in a black hoodie and shorts, Kathleen takes a drag from her cigarette under the midnight sun. On this night, she has nowhere to go and nothing to do in downtown Yellowknife. “You feel like you’re thrown out like the garbage,” Kathleen said. Originally from Kugluktuk, Nunavut but for the last five...
June 11, 2024
Advocates say 33 unhoused people have died in Montreal over last 3 years
APTN News: Advocates who work in Montreal’s shelter system say 33 unhoused people have died in the city over the last three years – many of them were Indigenous women. David Chapman, executive director of Resilience Montreal, said the housing crisis makes the situation worse. “Another factor is the increase in the more dangerous drugs...
May 15, 2024
‘I should have owned a house by now’: The struggle to find affordable housing in the N.W.T.
‘We’re entertaining the possibility of camping out,’ says one couple. APTN News: Ryan Heron and his partner have packed up the last of their belongings from their three-bedroom home on K’atl’odeeche First Nation in the Northwest Territories. Their landlord has decided to move back in. Heron’s family paid a reasonable $1,000 per month for rent, which...
May 7, 2024
Montreal report highlights gaps in services for urban Indigenous population
APTN News: A new report by the Montreal Indigenous Community Network says there are still gaps in the system that the people it serves are falling through. According to the report, Indigenous people make up 12 per cent of the homeless people in Montreal despite only making up .6 per cent of the population. “It’s...
April 5, 2024
AHMA Statement on CRAB Park Resident Displacement
NationTalk: AHMA agrees with statements made by the First Nations Leadership Council and the Federal Housing Advocate related to upholding the dignity and human rights of encampment residents. We share concerns about the displacement of CRAB Park residents and call on the Vancouver Park Board to honor their commitments to reconciliation and immediately prioritize a...
March 6, 2024
Homeless reception centre generates big numbers as well as ‘abject misery’: advocate
NationTalk: Taproot Edmonton – The United Conservative Party government describes its recently-launched homeless reception centre as a success, but some advocates for people without housing strongly disagree. The province launched a navigation and support centre out of a Hope Mission building in January. Jason Nixon, minister of seniors, community, and social services, said the centre was in the works...
February 16, 2024
AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak calls for full implementation of National Encampments Response Plan recommendations
NationTalk: Unceded Algonquin Territory, Ottawa, Ontario – Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak welcomed the release of the Federal Housing Advocate’s final report of her review of homelessness encampments as a human rights issue. “First Nations citizens experience homelessness at disproportionate rates across the country,” said National Chief Woodhouse Nepinak. “This...
February 16, 2024
Alberta investing $4M to redevelop Indigenous-led homeless shelter in Lethbridge
The provincial government, City of Lethbridge, and Blood Tribe Department of Health announced plans to redevelop and expand the homeless shelter in Lethbridge APTN News: The Alberta government announced that the province will provide $4 million to expand the capacity of a First Nations-run homeless shelter by 125 beds in Lethbridge on Friday. The Blood...
February 15, 2024
Federal housing advocate says Indigenous people grossly overrepresented in Canada’s homeless population
APTN News: Canada’s housing advocate says a staggering number of Indigenous people are part of the country’s growing homeless population. “Manitoba reported that in Winnipeg in 2018 two-thirds of people experiencing homelessness were Indigenous and that number climbs to 94 per cent in Thompson,” Marie-Josée Houle told Nation to Nation. “In Saskatoon an estimated 90...
January 18, 2024
Advocate says new plan to triage homeless in Edmonton lacks humanity
Police tearing down a homeless encampment in Edmonton. Photo: Chris Stewart/APTN. APTN News: Undefined Indigenous cultural supports and liaisons to be offered at a navigation centre to be opened to support homeless people removed from encampments being torn down in Edmonton are not good enough says the co-founder of Tawaw Outreach Collective. “Given most unhoused...
November 30, 2023
APTN National News podcast pushes past the stigmas to amplify the voices of people experiencing homelessness in Winnipeg
APTN National News podcast pushes past the stigmas to amplify the voices of people experiencing homelessness in Winnipeg NationTalk: TREATY 1 TERRITORY, WINNIPEG, Man. — APTN’s award-winning news team, APTN National News, is launching a five-part podcast series titled Our Relatives which unpacks the multifaceted reasons for the homelessness crisis in Winnipeg and shares the stories of the people...
November 28, 2023
FNLC Calls on BC to Defer Amendments to Bill 45; Urges a Human Rights Approach to Encampment Legislation
FNLC Calls on BC to Defer Amendments to Bill 45; Urges a Human Rights Approach to Encampment Legislation First Peoples’s Law Report: First Nations Leadership Council – (xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C.) The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) supports the growing calls from advocates to pause Omnibus Bill 45 pertaining...
November 24, 2023
Ontario coroner investigating death of woman at homeless camp in Cornwall
Mohawk woman helping daughter of Diane Hebert who died at the camp. APTN News: The daughter of a woman who died while living in a tent at a park in Cornwall, Ont., southeast of Ottawa, is turning to a Mohawk woman for support as she grieves her loss. Kim Legault’s mother, Diane Hebert, 67, died at...
September 7, 2023
After a Sexual Assault, She Was Kicked Out of Supportive Housing
Advocates say they have questions about how an Indigenous woman was treated after asking for help. The Tyee: Wanda Stopa and Allison Colligan first met over 20 years ago, when Ali was recovering from a brutal stabbing and Wanda was living in what she describes as a crack house. Both had experienced homelessness off and...
August 31, 2023
City of Edmonton slapped with lawsuit over encampment removals
‘Unhoused people have the same rights as anyone else,’ says lawyer who launched a lawsuit about encampment removals Sign saying “affordable housing for sale” beside an encampment. Photo: Danielle Paradis/APTN APTN News: The Coalition for Justice and Human Rights (CJHR) initiated legal action against the City of Edmonton regarding its policy of encampment removals where...
April 4, 2023
Frozen to death
Dickie Nelson’s death in a tent city as temperatures plunged last December came as more homeless people in northern B.C. – many of them Indigenous – are showing up in smaller communities in need of shelter. Dickie Nelson froze to death in a tattered tent in Terrace, B.C., last December on a night when the...
October 5, 2022
Grand Council Treaty #3, Kenora District Services Board and Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board Sign Memorandum of Understanding
NationTalk: (Lac Seul First Nation – Grand Council Treaty #3 (GCT#3), the Kenora District Services Board (KDSB), and Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board (RRDSSAB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to improve affordable housing and Early Years, Child Care and Education programming for families throughout the Treaty #3 territory. Through the...
February 25, 2022
Supreme Court rules against City of Prince George in homelessness case
The BC Assembly of First Nations – is pleased to welcome the recent verdict in Prince George (City) v. Johnny. Once again, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled against the City of Prince George’s attempts to dismantle an encampment, known as “Moccasin Flats,” located within a vacant lot in Prince George. After losing...
March 31, 2020
Laurentian University Research on Indigenous Homelessness
CBC – A team of researchers at Laurentian University is compiling research about homelessness among Indigenous people — with the hopes it could influence government policy decisions, and contribute to reconciliation. Last fall, the university hosted a conference, called Reclaiming Home, which focused on issues of homelessness, housing, and reconciliation. “Just looking at the rates...