Housing Supports & Advocacy
QomQem Coastal envisions a strong urban Indigenous community. Our Housing team offers supports and advocacy for Indigenous folks who may be using substances or living unhoused or precariously housed.
What we do
QomQem’s housing workers will meet folks in the community to complete housing paperwork and advocate for housing placements with BC Housing and other Housing Service Providers.
The team also offers one-to-one follow ups to support folks in maintaining housing. This can look like: having check-in’s, liaising with housing service provider staff and landlords, etc. The team will stay connected with folks for as long as they would like or need
supports.
Housing Contact:
Deborah Derrick | housing@qomqem.com | ph: 778-738-2021
Indigenous Housing.
In Victoria, the housing market ranks among the least affordable nationwide due to structural and systemic factors. These include high housing costs, limited affordable options, low incomes compared to living expenses, and discrimination such as racism and gender bias. For Indigenous folks historical and on-going colonial efforts uniquely impact our people.
Indigenous homelessness does not merely refer to lack of housing. Rather, it encompasses an understanding of ongoing attempts of assimilation on individuals, families, and communities, resulting in relational isolation with land, water, place, family, kin, cultures, languages, and identities. Understanding Indigenous homelessness goes beyond the lack of physical residence, involving the need for cultural, spiritual, emotional, and physical connections to one’s indigeneity, relationships, and identity.
Based on research conducted by the 2023 Point-in-Time Count and Housing Needs Survey in Greater Victoria
5%
of Greater Victoria’s population are Indigenous
32.9%
of folks struggling to obtain permanent, affordable and adequate housing were Indigenous
1/4
of survey respondents identified as being 55+.