Please go to this link to access the full study: Housing experiences and measures of health and well-being among First Nations people living off reserve, Métis and Inuit: Findings from the 2018 Canadian Housing Survey (statcan.gc.ca)
Overview of Study
Housing is a key social determinant of health. Using the 2018 Canadian Housing Survey (CHS), a unique dataset that combines housing and well-being indicators, this study examines health, life satisfaction, and financial hardship among First Nations people living off reserve, Métis and Inuit across specific measures of housing tenure, housing conditions, and core housing need. While housing measures such as core housing need have been previously explored, the CHS collects information on other measures such as satisfaction with dwelling conditions, accessibility, and neighbourhood safety, thus providing a more fulsome picture of housing experiences and how they relate to health and well-being. This study includes the following findings:
- Indigenous households were less likely to live in owned dwellings but more likely to have a mortgage on owned dwellings compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts.
- In 2018, one-quarter of Indigenous households lived in social and affordable housing (SAH), double that of non-Indigenous households. Over half of Indigenous households in SAH experienced some level of difficulty in the ability to meet past-year financial needs (55.7%).
- The high percentage of Indigenous households in SAH makes them particularly vulnerable to substandard housing conditions that impact health and wellness. Accordingly, Indigenous reference persons (person most knowledgeable about the household) in SAH were less likely than those in rented (non-SAH) or in owned dwellings to report excellent/good/very good general and mental health and high life satisfaction.
- Indigenous people were more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to be in core housing need (13.5% vs. 8.8%). Indigenous respondents to the questionnaire who were in core housing need in 2018 reported poorer health and life satisfaction.
- When examining components of core housing need, Indigenous people were more likely than non-Indigenous people to report living in a crowded dwelling and twice as likely to live in a home in need of major repairs.
- Indigenous people were nearly three times more likely to report mould and mildew in their dwelling and undrinkable water compared to non-Indigenous people.
- Past-year financial hardship was more pronounced among Indigenous people, with those experiencing financial difficulty more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to have sought financial help (e.g., asking for money from friends and family, taking on debt or selling assets). In particular, three-fifths of Indigenous people in core housing need reported difficulty meeting financial needs, compared with under one-third of Indigenous people not in core housing need.
Today, Statistics Canada released “Study: Housing experiences and well-being among First Nations people living off reserve, Métis and Inuit, 2018”.
As a key social determinant of health, housing tenure and conditions can have profound impacts on well-being. Indigenous people are disproportionately affected by inadequate, unaffordable, and unsuitable housing as findings from a newly released study on housing experiences and well-being indicate.
Using the 2018 Canadian Housing Survey, a unique dataset that combines housing and well-being indicators, this study examines previously explored housing measures (e.g., living in crowded dwellings or those in need of major repairs) in addition to new ones in relation to health, life satisfaction, and financial hardship offering a more fulsome picture of housing and well-being among Indigenous people. Given the nature of the survey’s data collection, the findings of this study are reflective of responses obtained from Indigenous housing decision-makers aged 15 and older (known as reference persons) within their household with estimates presented for Indigenous households and people within those households where relevant. Findings exclude people living on reserve.