Brantford Native Housing News 

With GivingTuesday taking place on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, Brantford Native Housing (BNH) says there are plenty of opportunities for the community to help give back.

BNH is a non-profit charitable corporation with the main objective to provide safe, secure and affordable rental homes for the urban Indigenous community in the city of Brantford. It’s outreach program also works to support the houseless community, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, by providing…

Brantford Native Housing along with it’s event partners (Niwasa, Aboriginal Health Centre & The City of Brantford) would like to formally thank everyone for coming out to our community wide National Truth & Reconciliation Day Event at Mohawk Park. Big thanks are in order to our event caterers CACulinary Services who provided delicious Indian Tacos, cookies, strawberry juice and much much more. Furthermore, we thank our phenomenal dancers, singers and drummers who encouraged our community to kick up some dust and join in on all the fun. Our event yielded approximately 700 attendees thanks to all our information booths, artists vendors, community singers and organizing staff. Our gratitude goes out to everyone who helped make this event memorable.

As a For Indigenous By Indigenous (FIBI) agency, it was important for us to showcase a piece of ourselves and our community in the reconditioning and the designing of our programming Van. BNH is grateful for the community’s input in the naming of our Van and furthermore, the opportunity to work alongside such talented Indigenous artists (Windigo Army) to make this project come to life.

What Our Journey Van Will Bee Used For:

1. To promote BNH’s housing services for Urban Indigenous people. Support our existing clients;

2. To provide outreach in encampments and connect people with support services;

3. To distribute essential items to the homeless; and,

4. To help deliver harm reduction tools and strategies.

Artsit Statement – Windigo Army is a loosely organized Indigenous street art collective started by a small group of friends from Mnjikaning Rama First Nation. We regularly travel to different cities and reservations to assist with native rights and Land Back events/movements. We use our art to connect with our cultural heritage and spread awareness of issues facing Indigenous people of turtle island, both current and historic. Our mission is to reconnect with the ancient rock painters of turtle island by continuing the tradition of using our art as a tool to tell our peoples story as we see it, as they once did 1000s of years ago.

Brantford Native Housing was asked to attend McMaster University’s Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative (CHEC) as a guest panel speaker to discuss and explore Indigenous community needs along with our current research priorities. We are grateful for the opportunity to connect with academics, students, policy makers, researchers and fellow Indigenous agencies to address the local to Federal Indigenous needs.

Evidence based research is extremely important for Indigenous Housing providers. We look forward to our continued collaborations with Jim Dunn, Cynthia Belaskie and the CHEC team for their efforts in assembling key research players to the table so that we can inform and improve Canada’s National Housing Strategy.

In March 2022, the City of Brantford and the County of Brant approved the creation of a new affordable housing build on Trillium Way in Paris, Brant – one of the collaborative projects being implemented to achieve the deliverables set out in the Mayors’ Housing Partnerships Task Force Affordable Housing Action Plan. The Trillium Way housing development will be occupied by singles, couples, small families, and seniors within the City of Brantford and the County of Brant.

Brantford Native Housing anticipates taking over 5 units in the future facility and will use it to serve Indigenous households in the community. For more information please click the link below. 

Filomena Belligero, Director of Advancement at BNH, will oversee a 42 month capacity building project for BNH to increase its ability to prevent and address gender-based violence against Indigenous women, girls, or 2SLGBTQQIA+ people. This will be achieved through the development and implementation of a strategic plan, a risk management plan, and succession plan. Further, BNH will improve its financial sustainability by exploring new funding opportunities, developing a fundraising plan, and conducting a social enterprise feasibility study. This project will enhance the organization’s engagement with community partners, Elders and Indigenous residents. By the end of the project, Brantford Native Housing will have improved their policies, operations and practices, strengthening their capacity to prevent and address GBV against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people in Brantford.

BNH was successfully awarded with $100,000 in funding for the integration and implementation of barrier-free features in one of Brantford Native Housing’s upcoming transitional redevelopment housing facilities planned to serve women, children & non-gender conforming individuals (location to remain undisclosed for sensitivity and privacy of residents). With funding awarded specifically towards accessibility, the future facility will be able to implement better inclusive features such as barrier-free office spaces, accessible doors with PDO’s (power door operators), barrier-free bathrooms and much more. We thank the government in their support to help us create more inclusive and accessible facilities for our clients.