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An air of the ghetto

Hack, cough, mumble, grumble; morning, breakfast and night. All of us together as one happy family!
Except how many are sick? And in this small house, there is no escape. Grandma will get it, the baby will get it – most of the kids will get it, perhaps all.
This has the hallmarks of what the establishment calls "flu season," but up here it is an unnecessary symptom of the housing crisis. The problem is not the seasonal blooms of viruses and bacteria natures, but overcrowding.
Last week’s news of the five-year high in the number of flu cases in the Beaufort Delta is a direct result of overcrowding; there is no escape from the droplets that are sneezed or coughed into the air.
This does not count the physical tension that overcrowding brings and then throw in a couple of bottles of whiskey and that intimate home can erupt with anti-social behaviour.
For many, this is an everyday situation that produces unhealthy living and social discord. Unfortunately, neither local or national governments are doing enough to tackle the issue.
I know of those who have to choose between a crowded home or the snowy waste; those are their only options. Whether their problems result from addictions, or family abuse, is irrelevant. Crushing a population because of a housing shortage is a crime against the nation and undermines the people’s productivity. Now, the government may not be taking citizens into the back alley and executing them, but the result is the same via the tortuously slow process of denying them shelter. The residents are exposed to disease, the addicted punish those around them with their behaviour and violence and the foundations of society, the family, is stressed to the point of dysfunction.
Last week’s reports of Nunavut’s housing problem are familiar across circumpolar Canada: Mould, disrepair, inadequacy and a shortage of staff. Over half the territory’s 3,000 public housing units are over 30 years old and are due to be replaced in 10 years. The population is likely to grow in that time, and I anticipate even worse social unrest due to the housing shortage. Youth suicide, booze-fueled killings, assault and hopelessness seem to complement each other in the North, where housing need will likely attain catastrophic proportions in 10 years.
I see just one resolution since Canada is not addressing the issue; these families will have to return to the land in the traditional way, full-time. Of course, many citizens have become dependent on the Internet, television and the over-priced corner store, so this may just be the musings of some crazy backwoods vagrant.
If nothing is done and governments do not invest in housing, people will continue to face annual epidemics, which are sure to increase in severity. Of course, this does not include the sure-to-rise expenses of delivering justice in response to alcohol-fueled crimes and other anti-social outcomes associated with overcrowding.
In short, since Canada will not support housing for Indigenous people, it will have to increase funding to the justice and health systems. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness may be guaranteed, but housing isn’t. So what can we do as individuals?
I always like the self-reliant answers in tenting, camper living and the like, but that requires character and a minimum of cash. So how do we deliver housing for those who have addictions that prevent them from finding their own dwellings? There are limited options; people stay with their relatives or sometimes a bunch of friends stay in one home where they can all share booze and drugs. How about those others who are under-housed and/or underpaid, how are they to attain adequate, affordable and safe housing?
Here in Fort Simpson housing is a very visible issue with no local response of any importance. I do not mean the current tenants who are well taken care of, but those singles, youngsters, workers and professionals who need help. There simply is not enough housing in our little village. Even I lived in a camper for over a year, enjoying the minus 45 weather and north-tilted snow storms, not to mention the tree-crushing autumn storms. Even my own bro is in the backyard this year, camping out, which is still a better option than bedding down in someone else’s home. These are the people Canada ignores.
Meanwhile, all those federal housing units go empty year-by-year, lending an air of the ghetto.