B.C. Housing conducts review on supportive housing deaths, but falls short of investigating their cause

The province says it has not investigated the cause of death of six Indigenous residents at a northwestern B.C. supportive housing complex, despite demands from First Nations to do so.

In a review report published last Tuesday, B.C. Housing said it had hired two external consultants to conduct a review in response to the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres (BCAAFC)'s April 2021 press release, which said the lack of culturally safe services had led to what they believed was the highest number of residents to die at a single supportive housing facility in a year.

However, the review was conducted to find out whether Goodacre Place is a safe place for Indigenous people to live, B.C. Housing said in the report — not an investigation of the deaths that occurred. "This is beyond the scope of the review," reads the report.

It adds that the consultants, one of whom is Indigenous, "did not observe direct linkages between the cultural safety practices employed at Goodacre Place and the deaths, and therefore could not substantiate any of the allegations indicated in the noted press release."

No 'common definition' of cultural safety in housing

Goodacre Place is a three-storey supportive housing building in Smithers, B.C., jointly developed by B.C. Housing, the Town of Smithers, and the non-profit Smithers Community Services Association (SCSA). It has 22 single occupancy units, and residents pay a monthly fee of $375 for shelter and receive breakfast, dinner, and support services.

In its 2021 press release, Dze L K'ant Friendship Centre, a member of the BCAAFC, said the SCSA rejected its offer in 2020 to provide support services to First Nations residents at Goodacre Place, because this would duplicate services already being provided by the association.

This rejection is not addressed in B.C. Housing's report. However, the report notes that the SCSA has adopted a variety of cultural safety practices based on consultations with local Indigenous communities.

It adds that at the time of the review, the SCSA "was not required by B.C. Housing to provide cultural supports."

It also says there is currently "no common definition of cultural safety in the housing sector, although the AMHA [Aboriginal Management Housing Association] is in the process of developing a framework and definition for cultural safety."

Although B.C. Housing did not investigate the causes of death of Goodacre residents, it says in the report that anti-Indigenous racism and illicit drug toxicity are serious in Smithers.

The agency recommends the SCSA to continue its engagement with local Indigenous communities to ensure cultural support is adequately provided for Indigenous residents at Goodacre Place.

It also recommends the SCSA to partner with Northern Health and First Nations Health Authority to provide a regularly scheduled on-site health-care professional at the supportive housing facility.

More Indigenous staff needed 

The report mentions that since BCAAFC issued its press release, SCSA has lost a significant proportion of its staff at Goodacre Place, due to distress over the deaths and threats from the local community.  

SCSA executive director Cathryn Olmstead says a total of seven employees, including four Indigenous workers, have quit, and B.C. Housing's report has helped exonerate her staff.

"We spent [over] 40 years as an organization trying to address those injustices — while our staff are deeply grieving, they're being thrown under the bus," Olmstead told host Carolina de Ryk on CBC's Daybreak North.

BCAAFC executive director Leslie Varley says the report doesn't go far enough to address the issue of systemic racism against First Nations in northern B.C.

She also says the SCSA should have hired more Indigenous people.

"For an organization that supports 50 per cent Indigenous people, you would expect to have 50 per cent employees who are Indigenous and 50 per cent representation on the board," Varley said on CBC's The Early Edition.

According to B.C. Housing's report, more than half of Goodacre Place residents are Indigenous, but only about a quarter of SCSA's staff are Indigenous.

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