Indigenous Housing Injustice

 

            Within the United States, indigenous people struggle to acquire adequate housing due to poverty (the result of colonization and sustained oppression of indigenous peoples) and lack of government initiative to improve indigenous peoples’ qualities of living. Indigenous Americans have the lowest labor force rate of any racial group in the U.S. at just 61.1 percent, and the average income of those who do work is only $35,000 per year, compared to the national average of $50,000 per year. In the most impoverished indigenous communities, unemployment rates reach up to 85 percent and only 1 in 3 men have full-time, year-round jobs. Additionally, due to the geographic isolation of indigenous reservations, there are far fewer job opportunities than are available elsewhere. Overall, 1 in 4 single-race indigenous people (meaning those who exclusively racially identify as indigenous) lives in poverty. Homelessness is also a huge problem among indigenous populations. For example, 55 percent of the Northern Arapaho are homeless (though many are able find refuge in the homes of other community members).

            Indigenous poverty is made far worse, however, by the housing crisis across reservations. 40 percent of the housing on indigenous reservations (which are home to 22 percent of indigenous Americans) is substandard. Less than half of all reservation housing is connected to public sewer systems and 16 percent lack indoor plumbing. Additionally, in some areas half of indigenous households have no phone service, and on the Navajo reservation (keeping in mind that the Navajo Nation is the most populous indigenous nation in the United States) 40 percent of houses lack electricity and/or running water. In 2011, 120,000 tribal homes lacked basic water and sanitation services. Though I was unable to find a more recent update to this statistic, I would guess that this number has unfortunately not improved much. Tribal housing is administered through HUD with Indian Housing Block Grant funding, which has remained at about $650 million annually since the grant was established in 1996. However, inflation has decreased the actual value of the grant by over a third, meaning that over time this funding has technically decreased despite the fact that the indigenous population is one of the fastest growing demographics in the United States. Given this fact, it should come as no surprise that one third of households on reservations are overcrowded.  

            Indigenous housing injustice is a complex issue with a long history and many effects which are not covered in this blog post. Additionally, indigenous peoples all across the globe face barriers preventing them from acquiring adequate housing, not just in the United States. Here are some sources I found regarding other aspects of indigenous housing injustice, as well as the sources I used for this post:

 

Indigenous housing in the U.S. (all referenced in this blog post):

https://www.ncai.org/policy-issues/economic-development-commerce/housing-infrastructure

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/06/americas-forgotten-crisis-50-percent-native-american-tribe-homeless

https://theredroad.org/issues/native-american-poverty/

Indigenous housing injustice Canada:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/indigenous-communities-struggle-to-find-adequate-housing-in-canada-and-abroad-1.5326161

Indigenous housing injustice in Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/20/we-are-begging-for-housing-the-crisis-in-indigenous-communities

Reservation food deserts:

https://www.voanews.com/a/tribes-fighting-high-prices-poor-food-quality-in-indian-country/3780303.html