A Unique Approach to Aboriginal Housing
 

The Ouje-Bougoumou Cree Nation is in the unique position of being one the few aboriginal communities to be able to develop and finance its own housing program. This is a consequence of the negotiations which took place between the Ouje-Bougoumou Cree Nation and the Government of Canada on the nature of Canada's financial contribution toward the construction of the Ouje-Bougoumou village. One of the key elements of the agreement which resulted from the negotiations was that certain funds would be transferred to Ouje-Bougoumou for housing purposes.

Following many community consultations, the Ouje-Bougoumou Housing Committee developed a unique and innovative Housing Program which has been designed to provide affordable and good quality housing for all Ouje-Bougoumou members. The program was designed in such a way so that the Ouje-Bougoumou people could look after their own housing needs in the future.

The Ouje-Bougoumou Housing Program contains two major components: the Home Ownership Program and the Rental Program. These two programs were developed to accommodate the housing needs of the entire Ouje-Bougoumou population.

The Home Ownership Program

The Housing Program was designed by the Ouje-Bougoumou people to make home ownership available to as large a segment of the population as possible. The type of housing provided through normal government aboriginal housing programs does not permit home ownership. The Housing Committee felt that making affordable home ownership available to Ouje-Bougoumou members would represent important progress in the development of appropriate aboriginal housing.

In developing the kind of program that would be in place to accommodate the Ouje-Bougoumou housing needs, the local Housing Committee was aided by certain guidelines articulated by the community members over the course of several meetings and workshops. Among these criteria were the following:

1. The houses would need to be built in such a way so that the Ouje-Bougoumou people would learn to build houses themselves.
2. The houses had to be designed to be appropriate to the Cree culture.
3. The houses would need to be easy to maintain and as inexpensive to operate as possible, which meant, among other things, that the houses would need to be highly energy efficient. In order to enhance the energy efficiency of the village, the houses were designed to exceed the R-2000 standard. (In fact the houses have been rated at nearly R-3000.)
4. And finally the houses would need to be affordably built without sacrificing quality.

In order to make affordable home ownership available, the Housing Program has built good quality, energy efficient houses as economically as possible. The homeowner is expected to pay back a portion of the cost of constructing the house and is also responsible for properly maintaining the house which means paying for the electricity, heating, insurance, user fees, repairs, etc. The Program has been designed so that no more than 25% of a family's income should be devoted to shelter costs. The monthly cost to the homeowner depends on family income. The higher the income, the higher the monthly payments. However, the more that is paid on a monthly basis, the shorter is the time for paying back the construction cost of the house. This is done for greater fairness and equitability.

If a person wishing to become a homeowner offers to provide voluntary labour in the construction of any of the houses built under this Program, the value of that labour may be applied toward reducing the total amount which needs to be paid back to the Housing Program. This provides members with the opportunity to reduce their regular financial requirements through non-cash means.

The Rental Program

After considerable deliberation, the Housing Committee determined that the rates for occupying the rental units would be a fixed monthly rate applicable to all renters. However in recognition of the fact that there may be significant income differences within that group of members who will become renters, three categories of rental rates have been established.

Ouje-Bougoumou members who live in the rental units and who plan to enter the Home Ownership Plan in the future may take advantage of an opportunity to make it easier for them to eventually own their own homes. This can be done by regularly putting aside an amount of money to be credited to an individual's home ownership account. By accumulating funds in the home ownership account, the amount of the construction costs which must be repaid can be reduced. Therefore, while renting, an individual can take measures which will reduce the costs of home ownership when that family is ready to take on the responsibilities of home ownership.

Today the Ouje-Bougoumou people continue to build attractive, comfortable, affordable and energy efficient houses within a context of housing self-sufficiency. The Ouje-Bougoumou leaders believe that the local housing program may, in fact, set a standard for aboriginal housing.

In 1994, Ouje-Bougoumou received honourable mention from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC) in a competition for housing innovations in the category of "Technology and Production". The award was presented in recognition of the installation of a biomass fuelled district heating system and its impact on the local housing program. A number of communities, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, have since taken an interest in the district heating system and some have proceeded with the planning of similar systems.