24 Spring/Summer 2026 JURISDICTION & ACCOUNTABILITY Indigenous housing officials in Ontario seeking increased supports from all government levels JURISDICTIONAL Accountability C helsea Combot, Red River Métis from Treaty 1, is all too aware of how many Indigenous women and families in Ontario do not have culturally appropriate places to live that are safe and stable. Combot, the senior director of policy and stakeholder relations for Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services (OAHS), has some solid ideas on how to improve Indigenous housing issues. But changes for the better are challenging to achieve since Indigenous housing concerns fall between federal, provincial, municipal and First Nations jurisdictions. “I work in policy, and that means dealing with all the different levels of govern- ment and all the different partners to put forward those bigger ideas,” Combot says. “What we’ve seen over the recent term is that the levels of government that should be interested in strategies for housing – that would be the federal and provincial governments – they have not given the time of day to urban Indigenous housing strategies.” In 2018, the federal govern- ment launched a $40-billion strategy to help improve access to affordable housing. “But in that strategy, they did not have an urban Indigenous approach,” Combot By Sam Laskaris says. “So that meant that organizations like ours, and all other urban Indigenous organizations that are interested in improving housing conditions, had to compete with mainstream and go for any kind of strategy investments that were part of that strategy.” “We had to compete with municipalities that have a lot more capacity and can pull from different resources, unlike non-profits like ours. So, I think that there’s been a lack of strategic thinking. There’s been a lack of any level of government engaging seriously with the expertise that we have within our sector.” Combot believes that expertise from people who work in the non-profit urban Indigenous sector can be more effectively utilized. “We know what works really well,” she says, adding that various forms of supportive housing are already occur- ring. “At the local level, communities know what works really well and what could be potentially replicated and adapted across the province or across Canada. [...] We just haven’t had a willing level of govern- ment at the provincial or federal level that’s been a true partner in working on expanding those leading practices and getting us to the place that the commun- ities that we are serving envision we need to get to.” Various studies also indicate that better investments in Indigenous housing would lead to a significant increase in other social aspects. “You see so many positive spin- offs,” Combot says. “There are programs that demon- strate that with housing stability, Indigenous women are able to pursue their own personal life goals, [whether they be] connection to culture, connection to the workforce or connection to education goals. And that through that, it also improves the lives of their children. We see a multigenerational effect of moving into security, moving into stability. And there’s a ton of reverbera- tions through that positive change for Indigenous women.” Combot also says there are additional benefits on a larger socioeconomic scale. “There have been studies that demon- strate that access to housing that’s safe and affordable has positive effects on reduction in access to emergency services, reduction in social assistance, reduction in justice system involvement,” she says. “There are so many positive elements to investment in housing.” Chelsea Combot. Cathy Conner.
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