Former Elsipogtog chief says housing project stuck in bureaucratic limbo

The former chief ofElsipogtogFirst Nation says she has a plan to help get much-needed housing built in the community but it appears to be stalled by bureaucratic inertia and she's not getting any help moving it forward.

Susan Levi-Peters said a team of community members developed a pilot project for on-reserve co-operative housing after looking at a number of community housing models.

But eight months later, their application to build 22 houses has not been approved by theregional director for Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.

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Levi-Peters said she has no idea what's causing the delay but added she was told byElsipogtog'schief that funding could only be provided for four houses at a time.

"I told him that's not enough."

The former chief said only six homes have been built on the reserve since 2008. Ten new houses are in the process of being built butLevi-Peters said it's not enough.

Housing allocation not based on need

Levi-Peters said right now on a reserve the decisionof who gets new housing is decided by the chief and council.

"If you don't vote for them, you don't get a house," she alleged. "It's not based on need or whether you qualify, it's based on how you vote."

But she says the housing co-operative model eliminates all that.

"It's an open public transparent plan. You are accountable to the people because it's the people that are going to be buying these homes."

Levi-Peters said people are tired of waiting for housing.

"We want ownership, we are tired of the old way of doing business."

I think we should be given the right to own our own home in our own lands, in our own community.- Susan Levis-Peters

Levi-Peters said houses being built are nevercompleted.

"There's a lot of room for kickbacks, for corruption. There's no community consultations."

Levi-Peters said those that do get a new house have no choice but to live in the unfinished homes.

"We put together a model that we wanted that people would be involved but more importantly they would have ownership."

Being able to own their homes would give people pride, said the former chief.It is somethingLevi-Peters did herself when she was a single mother with two children.

"I was one of the five or six people who had this opportunity and so I did it and I know that it works."

Levi-Peters now lives off-reserve, moving so she could allow her now adult children to live in the home she converted into apartments for them.

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To build the new houses, the housing co-operative needs aministerial loan guarantee from the federal government toallowpeople to rent to own.

Their work was funded by seed money fromCanada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to help them get started.

Theministerial loanguarantee allows those living on First Nations to get a mortgage so they can build their homes and if they default, the bank can get what is owed from the government which then deals with the First Nation.

Housing crisis

"The housing backlog is a crisis,"Levi-Peters said as she told of one man who stays with his parents and has no choice but to sleep in the four-foot crawl space under the house.

"I sawon Facebook another young couple who just had their seventh baby and they live in a two-bedroom house."

She adds apartments in the community are overcrowded.

"There's a lot of families living together, mothers losing their children because they don't have homes."

Levi-Peters said the housing crisis is causing numerous social problems that community members try to deal with such as poverty.

"People lose hope. I've seen it happen, I've seen people lose hope."

Levi-Peters said it's time for things to change.

"I think we should be given the right to own our own home in our own lands, in our own community."