North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre seeks meaningful collaboration to expand housing supports
North Bay, January 25, 2021 – Today, the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre (NBIFC) has released a paper on the state of housing and homelessness amongst the city’s Indigenous population, outlining a strategic approach to address this crisis. The four-part framework includes recommendations for increased funding, data sharing, collaboration and culturally-appropriate services. By working in alignment with the city and mainstream organizations to co-develop programs and services, NBIFC is confident real progress can be made to end homelessness in the community.
Indigenous people of North Bay account for about 14 per cent of the city’s population but make up 42 per cent of the city’s homeless. The reasons for this disparity stem from both historical injustices and present-day inequities.
With the vast majority of funding going to mainstream services and supports, NBIFC and its coalition of urban Indigenous service providers remain chronically under-resourced. In order to create further evidence-based solutions, the coalition also needs access to data, which must be co-collected, analyzed and shared in a fully transparent manner with all service providers.
As part of the solution, NBIFC is developing Suswin (Nest) Village, 30 units of transitional housing. This much-needed support space is expected to be completed by Fall 2022. NBIFC is actively seeking necessary funding for building and staffing costs.
“Our vision is to create a place where community members feel welcome,” says Kathy Fortin, Executive Director, North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre. “We provide safe, warm and supportive shelter, with access to the Friendship Centre’s programs. To achieve stable housing, community members need these wholistic healing and wellness supports.”
The Suswin Village Project is the outcome of the Suswin Navigator Support Program. Launched in 2017 with the help of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, it was designed to help homeless Indigenous community members navigate supports and services, and find a place to call home.
From providing for basic needs such as food, clothing and crisis support to education and training, Suswin Navigators have increased the likelihood that participants find their way to the help they need with a 63 per cent housing success rate in its first three years.
The key to its success has been fostering culturally-safe and trauma-informed care, working with partners across the community and providing training to non-Indigenous service providers.
The need for such care stems from generations of colonialization, marginalization, abuse and resulting discrimination that have made Indigenous clients distrustful of mainstream supports.
Providing wrap-around services in a culturally specific, welcoming and familiar environment is needed to help rebuild trust and provide a deep sense of safety, allowing healing to take place.