Housing puts health at risk; Doctors, nurses say housing, homelessness at fault for miasma of natives' health issues
Times Colonist (Victoria)
February 11, 2009 
By: Lindsay Kines

Mouldy, rotting homes on reserves and the high rate of homelessness among urban aboriginals are wreaking havoc on the health of B.C.'s First Nations, public health officials and aboriginal leaders say.

The awful living conditions have fuelled a tuberculosis outbreak in Port Alberni, contributed to high rates of asthma and respiratory illness among aboriginal people on reserve, and undermined everything from aboriginal mental health to basic nutrition, experts say…

Dr. Evan Adams, B.C.'s aboriginal health physician adviser, said substandard housing remains one of the key reasons that the health of aboriginals lags behind the rest of the population. "It's a basic indicator of the health of a people," he said. "Poor housing means poor health."

Adams said the over-representation of aboriginal people among B.C.'s homeless offers an extreme example of how housing affects people's well-being.

"As we tackle First Nations' health through the First Nations health plan, it doesn't really matter what we plan, people say: 'We'd really like a place to live before we can tackle the most basic of issues.'

"If someone doesn't have money for basic housing, then they also don't have the money for other things like a meaningful education, for good quality food, basic child care."…