Building Together

Growing from a community learning, that the housing crisis being experienced on reserve was different from the crisis being described by the government and media, Building Together was an exploration and synthesis of housing evaluation techniques globally. The gap between the two housing crises results from a difference in values and goals for housing; while Canada’s standard evaluation metrics may reflect the goals of urban Canadians they did not reflect the lives experience of our partners. A comprehensive review of alternative housing evaluation frameworks lead to the creation of a toolkit from which communities could create their own metrics, and define housing goals locally.

For the academic community, the research provides opportunities to develop culturally appropriate methods that fit the northern Ontario First Nations context and may be useful in other First Nations contexts or with marginalized communities globally. Evaluation is only useful when its finding are put into place, shifting from a focus on universal application and standardization to occupant-based understandings of need allows for communities to use housing evaluation to create individual and community well-being.

The creation of a methodological toolkit allows for community leaders, researchers and others to generate metrics which are reflective of local realities. Applied in marginalized communities, locally generated metrics allow for evidence based decision making to be generated and jurisdiction and control over housing to be re-asserted from within. Evaluations of initiatives taken on the basis of community priorities will provide valuable information about the characteristics of effective program development and service delivery in northern communities.

Guided by curiosity, the project began by asking:

What is housing? Why evaluate housing? Who evaluates housing? How is housing evaluated? Which scale is housing evaluated at? Which unit of analysis is used?

What was learned?

The creation of a unique housing evaluation framework for mid-Canada corridor First Nations must:

• Recognize the implications of colonialism in the existing housing system and housing evaluation;

• Shift control in the methodological process towards community self-determination;

• Allow communities to answer the six primary methodological questions;

• Centre community goals, values and aspirations in the evaluation process;

• Situate evaluation within a broader well-being conversation, recognizing the complex interactions between home, occupant and environment;

• Develop local capacity in methodological development, data collection and analysis to reduce evaluator bias and reliance on translation; and

• Support evaluation with sufficient resources to apply results in creating community-generated housing solutions.