Indian Housing

Housing on the reserve is an ongoing process for most Indian communities. The problem here is that Indian people never own the house or land on a reserve. It is considered crown land (owned by the national government).

Since the land is owned by the crown; Indian people are required to apply for a lot to use through the Indian reserve elected Chief & Council system. Once the application is done and approved than it is a matter of applying for funds from different national government sources.

In recent years, changes have been made to allow for mortgages for new homes on reserves. You have to admit that it is an interesting business.... getting people to take out 25 year mortgages for something that will never really be theirs. Once the home mortgage is paid off, we still can't use the house as collateral. The government does provide a certain amount of money as a grant to the house but this is only about a 3rd of the total cost or less.

The economics of a reserve don't help the situation that much either.

• Most reserves have an 80% unemployment rate
• Over 50% of most reserve populations are under the age of 19
• Most homes are currently over crowded
• Most homes are not maintained well due to costs & lack of personal funds
• If personal funds aren't lacking; people feel best to invest in something that will provide them collateral (a home isn't collateral)

The funny thing about all this is... I still want to be in my community even though the future of housing and employment isn't to bright.