The Indigenous Housing Case Manager assists our Outreach Workers in different forms of housing support. Many of the Indigenous individuals we serve are unhoused or precariously housed. As an organization that directly serves a large proportion of Indigenous Peoples, from around Canada, our experiential staffing and leadership structure reflects this.
We aid individuals in getting ID and status cards, accessing income assistance or disability, and assist them to get on the BC housing registry. We also assist in locating and securing market rent housing, offering support with rental assistance bursaries, basics to get started in a new home, and ongoing support to maintain this housing over the long-term. It is very common for indigenous peoples to not access existing clinical and support services in Victoria, due to the prejudices and harms experienced from the past to the present. By engaging Indigenous Peoples through their culturally appropriate programming, and through our Indigenous staff with direct experience of homelessness and substance use, we are able to reach individuals who would not otherwise access housing supports, therefore we can hold space, and provide these supports in a way that better meets their actual needs and struggles in maintaining housing. We are very well-positioned to hire and maintain employment for Indigenous housing support workers to directly assist members of our community, and to provide improved housing supports as part of our continuum of services.