YO!
HOUSING: WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS? Housing has always been a big issue for our community. It may seem like the problem is simple – we need more houses, so lets find the money to build more houses! but it’s more complicated than that.
MAY 1 2012
NEWS
Whenever the band builds a new house, we have to get a mortgage to pay for it, usually from CMHC. Once the house is built we still have to pay the mortgage on it, which is supposed to be covered by rent. When tenants don’t pay rent (or, for SA clients, when their hydro costs take up too much of their shelter allowance to cover rent too), we can’t pay off the mortgages on houses we’ve already built, so they won’t give us new mortgages to build new houses. Not only that, but the band pays for utilities (water, sewer, and garbage removal for all houses, insurance for band-owned houses) which costs about $1,886.77 per year for band owned houses, and $1,125.01 for houses owned by the tenants. This costs the band over $145,000 every year, and we don’t get much funding for this because we are expected to charge the tenants a portion, on top of rent. Off-reserve people pay taxes (around the same amount) to cover these costs. Communities with very successful housing programs tend to run their housing like a business – they provide very high-quality service, and don’t lose money. At some point our band is going to have to go in the same direction, and tenants will have to start paying more to receive good housing.
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PATIENT TRAVEL HOUSING COMMITTEE MEMBERS PUBLIC WORKS + SOC DEV LANGUAGE + NATIVE CAMP MTNG SURVEY, GYM TIME + JOB POSTING MISC. NOTICES SCHOOL PLAY POSTER MAY 31 TRUST ALL-BAND MEETING CALL FOR CATERING BIDS MISC. NOTICES LOCAL JOB POSTINGS COLOURING MARK YOUR CALENDAR
ELDERS LUNCH With the Eke Me-xi Students Wednesday, May 2nd at noon There is a lot on the agenda: • Hotel & conference registration forms • Finalize elders & chaperones going on elders’ trip • Creating updated Elders List (65+) • Guest speakers Please all elders come to plan the trip to Abbotsford on July 10-12, the 36th annual BC Elders Gathering, hosted by Sto:lo Nation & Tsawwassen! Elders only please.
JANINE SHEARD ELDERS’ COORDINATOR PAGE 1
GWA’SALA-’NAKWAXDA’XW NATIONS YO! NEWS
16/04/2012