Abstract

TRANFORMATIONS IN URBAN ABORIGINAL HOUSING AND GOVERNANCE: LESSONS FROM WINNIPEG

Ryan Walker

Governance networks in Canadian cities are emerging to produce low-cost housing. The long-standing relationship between the federal government and Aboriginal peoples, and the movement toward Aboriginal self-determination in urban affairs, both add new dimensions to mainstream discussions of state-citizen relations and urban governance.

The presentation is based on interview- and policy-based research conducted in 2002 on the low-cost housing sector in Winnipeg. Perspectives from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal housing actors at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels were gathered through personal interviews. The actors are wide-ranging in their involvement and levels of jurisdiction, and include government and third-sector housing providers, advocates, planners, financial sponsors, and developers.

A range of views on the benefits and challenges that Aboriginal organisations and residents face as they participate in mainstream neighbourhood low-cost housing production networks, and as they pursue separate urban Aboriginal housing initiatives are discussed. In order to identify areas of coherence and problems in policy development and implementation these views are then woven into a discussion of the present policy environment.

Arguments for the importance of self-determination in the design and delivery of urban Aboriginal housing programs are advanced, and instances of systemic discrimination in new mainstream low-cost housing programs are identified. The space that was carved out by the Urban Native Housing Program under the CMHC, beginning in the 1970s and since discontinued at the federal level, has been left unfilled in new rounds of low-cost housing programming. This is acting as a setback to progress made thus far in the self-determination by Aboriginal peoples in urban affairs and program delivery.

The implications of this research are far-reaching and transferable beyond the housing sector to other areas of social development.

Bio

Ryan Walker is a doctoral candidate in geography at Queen’s University, Kingston. He is a provisional member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and Ontario Professional Planners Institute. In addition to his work on urban Aboriginal housing and governance, he maintains an active interest in urban politics, supported housing for people with serious mental illness, and in the field of program evaluation and human services in Africa. Ryan has received several awards for his work, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship and the Canadian Policy Research Award – Graduate Prize from the Policy Research Initiative.

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