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Family Violence and Homelessness: An Aboriginal Woman's Perspective

Charlotte Mearns

EDITOR’S NOTE: Throughout this article, the author has used gender-neutral terminology. In a visceral sense, it is ‘known’ within Aboriginal communities and organizations that, as in non-Aboriginal communities, men, women, youth, and children all suffer from homelessness; but that, while men’s homelessness may relate to family violence experienced during childhood, the homelessness experienced by women, children, and youth is more directly and immediately a consequence of fleeing violence. However, while increasing information exists to quantify this in non-Aboriginal communities, the same is not true in Aboriginal communities. This underlines the author’s primary message: that more and better information about Aboriginal homelessness, family violence, and the gendered nature of both is needed, and urgently so. (personal communication)

“We use information to form beliefs about what is and to form strategies about how to change what is. No problem is identified, or policy proposed, nor objective agreed upon without an information base. If the federal government is to meet its commitments, and the fate of First Nations people in Canada is to improve, the information upon which to base the policies that govern the lives of First Nations people must be improved. Yet, it is not simply more information that is needed; it is good information that is needed.”
— First Nations Statistics: A Shift in Perspective to Community-Relevant Information

I am a direct descendant of X’muthk’I’um (Musqueam’s) First People. It is my privilege to share some words about family violence in our communities, the consequences of which, in many instances, catapult many of our people into the uncertainty of homelessness. Over the course of the past two decades, I have been entrenched in what has become the urban mosaic of my traditional territory, serving my people as I was ‘put here’ to do. I compose this from my perspective as an Aboriginal woman addressing Aboriginal people’s issues.

The definition of homelessness adopted by the Aboriginal Homelessness Steering Committee in the GVRD includes:
• Absolute homelessness: without shelter; living on the streets.
• At risk of becoming homeless: lacking security of tenure; due to circumstances, financial or otherwise, ‘at risk’ of becoming homeless.
• Relative homelessness: sleeping on couches in the homes of relatives and/or friends.

Each of these conditions of homelessness have affected many of our people, who have suffered or continue to suffer in dysfunctional homes with violent partners; or who have made the courageous decision to flee with nothing more than their wounded hearts and souls, their children, and the clothes on their backs.

From my perspective, and based on traditional teachings, family violence is a behaviour that traditionally did not exist. Violence is a reprehensible behaviour learned by our people in the confines of the Indian Residential School system, and which manifested itself in the form of physical, emotional, verbal, and spiritual abuse. Family violence is one of the primary factors contributing to our people’s experience of the varying degrees of homelessness.

One of the greatest challenges of a statement like this is attempting to provide documentation or statistical information to support it. There is a critical shortage of research that demonstrates the direct correlation between family violence and our people seeking refuge in the homes of family and friends, or living on the streets. Collaborative, community-based approaches, supported by government, must be undertaken to understand and break the cycle of abuse.

Since the creation of the National Homelessness Initiative (NHI) and
the corresponding National Research Program (NRP), which dedicates resources to regional research initiatives across the country, there have been numerous research studies relevant to homelessness generally. What is glaringly missing is an examination of the direct correlation between family violence and the varying degrees of homelessness among our people.

The Government of Canada relies heavily on statistical outputs generated by Statistics Canada’s Census Survey. These outputs estimate the size and composition of the overall Canadian population and therefore play a crucial role in federal fiscal transfers. Because of the absence of reliable research and/or statistical collections on the national Aboriginal homeless population, the Government of Canada has based its funding-allocation strategies on pure speculation. Since the inception of the NHI in 1999, the value of available resources for the BC region has consistently fallen short, a statement I make with confidence because I have first-hand experience as an Aboriginal administrator of these funds, I have served as a technical resource to the proposal review and adjudication process, and I now administer a homelessness initiative that has insufficient resources
to meet the needs of our people.

This is not to detract from the integrity of the NHI itself. Rather, it demonstrates that in the absence of an acute understanding of the root causes of homelessness, and expanded knowledge of the actual size and composition of the Aboriginal population on the Missing Canadians Population Lists, the Government of Canada will continue to render ‘best guesses’ about what quantity of resources will be sufficient to alleviate the hardships and suffering of our homeless people.

Valiant efforts at micro-level Aboriginal homelessness research have been undertaken by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community-based organizations throughout BC with the goal of enhancing our understanding of the root causes of homelessness. These efforts should be applauded, as they have served to inform their respective boards and homelessness governance structures about where and how best to dedicate resources. However, while these research initiatives are useful information tools for individual organizations, they have little or no effect on the development of government policy and the enhancement of resources to support our people suffering from family violence and on the brink of homelessness.

Unless these micro-level research initiatives are complemented with statistical indicators generated from within the macro-structure of Canada’s primary information engine—Statistics Canada—what we are left with are literature reviews unsubstantiated with quantitative/qualitative data.

From my perspective—as an Aboriginal woman who has dedicated her adult life to helping our people when they are caught in the web of bureaucratic and/or criminal processes, or whose lives hinge on decisions to seek shelter under bridges or in alcoves to escape the abusers they thought they knew—there remains much work to be done. This work should not be underestimated. It will present arduous challenges, and will require true leadership to realize the following goals:

• Local efforts must be undertaken to bridge the communication gap between micro-level community-based research and the macro-structure of government so that research initiatives are qualitative, quantitative, and substantiated.

• Research findings and literature reviews must be comprehensive and supported by statistical information that will hold up to the rigours of the scientific principles of Statistics Canada, so that it will be considered by government in developing policies affecting family-violence prevention strategies and resulting funding allocation strategies.

• Aboriginal organizations could undertake training and capacity-development initiatives that will enhance their organizational ability to conduct meaningful research without having to squander limited and valuable resources on external consultants.

• Aboriginal organizations must enhance their capacity, through training and capacity-development initiatives, to create administrative-infrastructure tools that support the collection of client data that can be assessed, reported on, and converted to an organizational information system.

• Research initiatives should engage Elders to ensure that the integrity of centuries-old traditional and cultural observances, which connote respect for protocols of integrity, trust, fairness, balance, commitment, clarity of vision/purpose, and, most importantly, the vast cultural diversity of the Aboriginal people,
is upheld. Only then will we be able to realize the vision stated at the beginning of this article:

“If the federal government is to meet its commitments, and the fate of First Nations people in Canada is to improve, the information upon which to base the policies that govern the lives of First Nations people must be improved. Yet, it is not simply more information that is needed; it is good information that is needed.”

Yesterday, Charlotte Mearns gathered knowledge and served her people as Senior Contracting Officer administering resources to Aboriginal organizations in BC under the Urban Aboriginal Homelessness Strategy of the Government of Canada’s National Homelessness Initiative (NHI). Today, she is responsible for the management and administration of an initiative funded under the Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness (RSC), which provides supportive programming and services to Aboriginal woman and their children fleeing abusive relationships.

REFERENCES

First Nations Statistics: A Shift in Perspective to Community-Relevant Information. Available online at http://www.firststats.ca.