Social housing coming to Kanesatake
The community can expect new social housing units after the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) announced it has secured $1.4 million in government funding earmarked for housing in Indigenous communities.
While this could take the form of two new triplexes, for a total of six units to accommodate local families, the community will have a chance to weigh in on what will be built and where, according to MCK chief Amy Beauvais.
“It’s a pilot project, so it’s the first step of hopefully a transition to more sustainable housing,” Beauvais said.
While many Kanehsata’kehró:non greeted the announcement with approval, others expressed concerns over fairness. In particular, some noted that it could be difficult to ask community members to pay rent to Council, even if below market, when some Kanehsata’kehró:non, including Council chiefs, are living rent-free in federal homes. Others worried that so few units could be allocated unfairly.
Beauvais said the committee tasked with the project is creating an eligibility point system to ensure fairness in the selection process.
“There’s different criteria that would either give more or fewer points and kind of gives us an idea of the need of the family or individual,” she said, noting disabilities, family size, and other attributes would be determining factors.
She said a housing section is being created on the website to help ensure transparency in the selection process as well.
Community member Myrna Gabriel greeted the announcement as good news, expressing that people are too quick to dismiss news that ought to be seen as positive.
“There’s a huge housing crisis going on, but just for our own community it’s been a need for the longest time,” said Gabriel, whose stepfather, MCK chief John Canatonquin, leads the housing portfolio.
“Just seeing the cost of living, the cost of rent, the cost of utilities, the cost of food, it’s not realistic to expect a single person on minimum wage to be able to make it. There’s no way.”
Knowing how difficult the housing market is, she has emphasized to her adult children they can live at home as long as they need to. However, she hopes that when they do decide to move out, they have the option to do so without a lack of housing holding them back.
As for social housing, she believes those with physical challenges, such as those with disabilities or elders with diminishing mobility, should be prioritized.
Beauvais hopes the community will support the development of social housing as the project progresses.
“The biggest roadblock right now I think would be community acceptance and people putting their personal issues aside and looking at it with a good mind, to see that, okay, them or their family may not benefit this time around, that this doesn’t have to be the only build,” Beauvais said.
Two options being seriously considered are modular homes, which are prefabricated, or rammed earth, which is extremely durable.
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“These houses would last for centuries, not decades,” Beauvais said. She said the homes would have advantages like being resistant to fire and mold and easy to heat.
“I see it as a solution to the housing crisis. The fact that these homes will be sustainable over a long period of time, it’ll reduce the number of renovations needed,” she said.
She is also hopeful that, if the community opts for rammed earth, community members working on the construction could earn accreditation to work with the material at the same time as earning an income.
Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
