Having been in operation since 1986, staff with Brantford Native Housing (BNH) have been taking a look back at all that it’s accomplished in 40 years, and reflecting on the impact it’s made in the community since then.
Also known as Hotinohsioni Inc., BNH is a non-profit charitable corporation with the main objective to provide safe, dignified and equitable housing, as well as programming options for the urban and rural Indigenous community within the City of Brantford and the County of Brant.
The Indigenous-led agency currently owns and operates a total of over 190 units of transitional, affordable and market-level units across Brantford, as well as second stage housing for women, men, families and youth. All of the units serve Indigenous households including Status, non-Status, Métis and Inuit families.
As far as transitional housing, there are four types that BNH offers, including: men’s transitional housing, women’s transitional housing (with, or without children), family transitional housing and youth transitional housing (with, or without children).
From supporting the unhoused to assisting people in accessing supportive transitional housing, providing ongoing aid to help clients remain housed, and helping them to transition into affordable and market-level housing, BNH has dedicated four decades of time and resources to serving the community.
Alma Arguello, Executive Director of Brantford Native Housing, said it all started when several people came together to bridge a gap.
“BNH was started out of the sheer necessity for urban Indigenous folks to have a place to call home, and it started with Chel and Shelley Niro, as well as Dr. Andrew Trevor; they mortgaged their own houses and properties to be able to purchase that first home for BNH,” she said. “It was slow moving, but eventually there was an investment from the federal government and slowly, more housing was purchased and the agency got up and going. But it all began when they really started seeing what kind of issues the community was facing. For example, a lot of landlords were not renting out to mothers and families because they were Indigenous, so BNH answered that call to action.”
“Answering the community’s call for action has been the building blocks for Brantford Native Housing for the past 40 years,” continued Arguello. “Everything we’ve contributed, and every call for action that BNH has stepped up to answer for the urban Indigenous population in both Brantford and the County, reflects who we are at our core, and we want to celebrate and honour that.”
Drawing on research completed in partnership with Wilfrid Laurier University, Claire Rahija, who provides grant and research support for BNH, said the data reflects the long-term impacts BNH has been responding to since its inception.
“Because we’ve spent 40 years responding to the evolving needs of the community, we are able to see trends within the urban Indigenous population of Brantford. Research with Laurier found that of the clients we service, 63 per cent had attended residential school, and 45 per cent have been impacted by Indian Day School,” said Rahija. “We can clearly see the impacts of colonial harms and how we’ve responded to them for the past 40 years. The Mohawk Institute was the longest running residential school in all of Canada, and that runs deep in this community. As a result, we’re always trying to ensure that the services BNH was built on, are still evolving and responding to meeting these ongoing intergenerational challenges.”
Both Arguello and Rahija went on to say that one thing that is clear, is that many of their clients specifically seek out BNH and other organizations that respond to the needs of Indigenous people, because they’re specifically grounded in cultural support and understanding.
“You often hear the phrase, ‘For Indigenous, by Indigenous,’ but before that was coined Indigenous communities were always saying, ‘Nothing about us without us.’ That term really stemmed from Indigenous people stating their sovereignty, which is so important,” said Arguello. “Brantford Native Housing started with a non-Indigenous ally stepping up, because Chel was married to an incredible Indigenous woman who saw what her people were going through, but at the same time, it was still centered around, and involved the Indigenous community. And Chel and Dr. Trevor, whose practice served a majority Indigenous people, brought Indigenous voices to the table to ask, “How can we make this better for the community?’ And from that foundation, BNH grew into an organization that is truly Indigenous-led and for the community itself.”
“Our Indigenous community has done the work with humility, care, an open heart, a good mind, and with our old principles from the Seven Teachings,” she continued. “And at BNH, we live by those principles and our track record reflects that. We have been courageous, honest, and grounded in those teachings; you can even see it when looking at the timeline of how everything progressed. Even when funders who were non-Indigenous came in, the work was still, ‘Nothing about us with us.’ We are, outside of Six Nations, the largest employers of Indigenous people and 85 per cent of our staff identify as Indigenous, and people know that and appreciate it.”
Because generations of people have been displaced by either the Mohawk Institute, the Sixties and Millennial Scoops, housing has become more than just a shelter. It’s a way to reconnect with culture and community, provide safety for families and children, create pathways out of poverty and homelessness and contribute to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
Arguello said that’s why BNH is so committed to its ongoing projects. With one current build taking place on West Street, and future developments taking place on Campbell, Catherine and Sheridan streets, creating space to meet the needs of elders, men, women, youth, families, and those who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+, are imperative.
Coupling all of that with the work around maintaining and revitalizing its current housing stock, it allows the organization to ensure it can serve the community for generations to come.
It’s work that Arguello said she and her staff of 30 are humbled to do.
“I’m very humbled to be involved in this organization, the community has been very welcoming and it has been such a pleasure to serve here. I’ve never had a job like this where I’m so excited to work every day. I work long hours, but it doesn’t feel like long hours. It feels like my job has, in a way, become part of my life. It feels like what I do matters, that the advocacy that we put forward is going to have lasting change, and it’s going to be there for many, many years. I want BNH to continue doing this amazing work for many, many years to come. Even those staff that have been here for 27 years, 15 years or even ten years, they could have other jobs, but they choose to stay here because the work matters. That’s what it’s about.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
