Kikékylec

Category: Supportive Housing | Author(s): Olivia Holmes and Daria Pavlova

Image Credit: Olivia Holmes

Location Address: 975 Singh Street, Kamloops, BC, Canada

Subject

Kikékylec is run by Lii Michif Otipemisiwak Family and Community Services; this Métis organization serves and protects Indigenous youth and Elders in the Kamloops area. Kikékylec is a 31-condo housing unit that provides safe and affordable housing for Indigenous Youth and Elders in Kamloops. Kikékylec responds to Indigenous youth who have spent their adolescence in the child welfare system and are now becoming young adults who are seeking to transition into independent living. Melissa Kelm, Kikékylec Weekend Watch Support, explains Kikékylec is more than just housing, “Kikékylec provides a wrap-around service, it’s not just a roof over their head. Kikékylec gives Indigenous youth a chance to feel that sense of belonging, reconnect with culture, and get life skills that foster kids may not have.” Kikékylec provides a culturally safe space where youth can rent suits, participate in programming, and access support during their transition into independent living. Kikékylec provides services through Métis values and tradition; the building incorporates Indigenous language and teachings, smudging, Elder support, and person-centred trauma-informed care.

Kikékylec is currently responding to the housing affordability crisis through a wrap-around service and housing program for Indigenous community members to access. Kikékylec empowers Indigenous Youth to reconnect with their culture and provides an equitable opportunity for Youth to take on independent living. The focus is on an all-encompassing enhancement of quality of life for Indigenous youth who undoubtedly deserve the opportunity to thrive in adulthood and explore their passions, “That’s the neat thing about Kikékylec, it’s filling this gap people don’t see with Indigenous people; [Everyone is too] concentrated on just getting Indigenous people to pass. [Kikékylec] takes them from flying under the radar to excelling in life…what we try to do is bring them together to help and support one another. It boosts confidence when you recognize you can see you have the ability to help others in your community. And in turn, that makes everyone feel included.” (Melissa Kelm, 2022)

Crisis

Indigenous people face racialized systematic oppression every day; this shows up in everyday aspects of life. In current-day reality, Indigenous communities are affected by homelessness at a disproportionate rate. When the City of Kamloops facilitated a Point-in-Time Homeless Count in 2018, 48% of the 201 surveyed people who were experiencing homelessness identified as having Indigenous heritage (Affordable Housing Summary, 2018). The overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in the child welfare system directly relates to the opportunity or lack thereof, Indigenous people face when transitioning from adolescence to young adulthood; these systems interact with one another and show up in Indigenous reality when interacting with the rental/housing market, “What we look like and the colour of our skin plays a part in if someone will accept you as a tenant…Indigenous stereotypes are still out there.” (Melissa Kelm, 2022) According to The Voice of Métis: Housing Needs Assessment, 40% of Métis households live in unaffordable housing within the Thompson & Okanogan Region. Specifically, Métis youth have the highest rates of unjust housing across all age groups; 49% of Métis youth (0-20 years) live in unaffordable housing, 19% live in inadequate housing, and 12% live in unsuitable housing. (Métis Nation British Columbia) Through national and municipal research, we identify the crisis with Indigenous housing access and affordability. Of course, Indigenous communities are a part of the greater community of Kamloops; the homelessness, affordability issues, and housing markets that affect Indigenous peoples directly represent the housing affordability crisis in Kamloops.

Kikékylec has rooted their service in Indigenous empowerment and community connection. Internally, funding is a barrier in terms of expanding physical space and service options. Jay Bearhead, Kikékylec Urban Youth Support Worker, outlines the importance consistent funding could bring to the program, “Support staff at Kikékylec are purely based on government funds. If for some reason those funds dry up, run out, or aren’t renewed there is no real way around it. So that is kind of a constant worry. If there is no funding for support staff or operations. Then what happens? We have 30 Elders and youth out because we can’t afford to run. Not enough space is a huge thing.” (2022) Kikékylec is a not-for-profit organization that relies on grants, donations, as well as federal and provincial funding. Funding application and worry affect capacity within the organization; re-applying and waiting for funding is an obstacle in terms of expansion. More rooms and services provided through Kikékylec is an integral piece to responding to the Kamloops housing affordability crisis.

Video Credit: Olivia Holmes and Daria Pavlova

Community Implications

We live in an ever-changing society that is constantly shaping our leaders of tomorrow. Kelm reminds us of the power of investing in our Youth, “I feel like it affects everyone. If we can bring these youth to excel, and not just pass, who knows what they’ll be able to do in this world. They’re our leaders and if we don’t care about them, support them, or wrap around them, our society is doomed.” (2022) The social inequality that persists in the present day shows up within our system daily, affecting everyone and anybody,

“When you turn a blind eye to social problems, like the housing crisis, you end up hurting a community that doesn’t need to be hurt. If you pretend to not see something, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. The people who don’t see it are affected, maybe not immediately, but over time, I believe it gets to them; be it through taxation, or complaints regarding the number of people we see downtown… so maybe you don’t see it every day, but it affects you every day.” (Jay Bearhead, 2022)

When we recognize social issues as worldly issues, our ability to problem-solve is humanized. We work towards a better tomorrow that positively and systematically helps and uplifts every community member.

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A Way Forward

We recognize that no one suggestion will solve the housing crisis in Kamloops, but based on our research, here are some ideas that may help move us even slightly forward.

In 2015, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) heard testimony from 6,500 witnesses, over five years, to better understand the long-lasting traumatic effects of residential schools. This research came with a mandate to intentionally create and understand actualized approaches to Reconciliation on all levels of government, businesses, and worldly systems. Housing affordability and Indigenous safety are integral pieces of this document, which calls upon federal, provincial, and territorial governments to respond to a plethora of crises that directly relate to Indigenous people’s ability and privilege to access safe and affordable housing, as well as the systematically rooted issues that lead to such crises. We as a Nation are obliged to respond to this work in a timely and thoughtful manner in the name of Human Rights and Equality. Melissa Kelm grounds us in the value of lived experience and reminds us where the answers to such a crisis may lie,

“We should befriend this homeless population, they have so much to offer us. Ask the people that it affects the most, those are the people that will have the answers for us.”