A University of Victoria professor is researching the housing and homelessness crises in Terrace.
Brenda Mishak, who has been living in Kitimat since 2020 and has a daughter who lives in Terrace, wants people to move away from the idea that homelessness is something that happens to other people.
"Many of us are one paycheque away from being homeless," she said. "Many of us one medical emergency, one breakup, one housemate moving out without paying their half of the rent away from being in a really dire strait of not being able to make your rent or mortgage."
"It builds up over time. It's not like you miss it and then it goes away. It just adds up to the next month and the next and before you know it, you're behind. How do you catch up? That's the kind of housing insecurity I'd really like people to be more aware of."
"There's a whole spectrum of housing insecurity. They are our friends, our neighbours, they are people that we grew up with or went to school with, and have fallen through the proverbial cracks at different system levels."
Basic needs
Mishak says that people having their basic needs met goes a long way.
"You know, there's something about meeting your basic needs, like shelter, like belonging, that can help you move towards feeling like you deserve to feel worthy," she said. "They know they need a shower, they know that their clothes need to be washed, but how do you wash your clothes when you're wearing them. How do you have a shower or even access public washrooms?"
A 2023 study from UBC showed how much unhoused people value their basic needs. Of 115 participants, 50 were given $7,500 and 65 were not. Researchers tracked participants for a year to see how the cash transfer affected them or not.
The participants who got the lump sum spent most of the money on rent, transit, food and "durable goods" such as furniture or clothes. Around 50 per cent of the participants moved into housing just one month after receiving the cash, showing how prepared they were to get back to a stable life.
The researchers also found that the group who received the $7,500 did not spend more on "temptation goods" such as alcohol or drugs than people who did not get the extra money.
Cash transfer studies from around the world have demonstrated that helping unhoused people meet their basic needs can reduce poverty and ultimately save taxpayer money. In the UBC study, the lump sum helped the participants spend on average 99 fewer days being unhoused, saving the government and taxpayers an average of $777 per person.
Housing and poverty
"Even in a community where we have really good paying jobs, we also have parts of the community that work in the service industry and are making minimum wage or close to it," she said.
Seven per cent of Terrace residents lived in poverty in 2020, according to Statistics Canada’s Market Basket Measure of Poverty report. That rate is slightly lower than the provincial number of 10 per cent, but the poverty rate for First Nations in Terrace is nearly double that of non-indigenous people.
Mishak believes that housing based on income, or subsidized housing, would be a great solution. Although 23 per cent of Terrace tenants live in subsidized housing compared to 11 per cent across B.C., there is still a high unmet need for affordable housing.
"If we don't have housing based on income, if everything is free market, it becomes harder to have that coffee shop stay open, gyms, restaurants, movie theatres, bowling alleys, all of those social amenities," she said. "In order to have those creature comforts of the city, we have to have housing for people in all income brackets."
Subsidized housing exists in Terrace, such as the 'Ksan Society's Terra Nova Housing (formerly Skeena Kalum Housing Society). It is a 50-unit social housing complex on Terrace's south side. It aims to ensure people do not pay more than 30 per cent of their income on rent.
"As soon as you get over 30 per cent, that's when you're considered housing insecure. There are lots of people that are paying over 30 per cent for housing," said Mishak.
In 2020, one in four tenants spent 30 per cent or more of their income on housing in Terrace, according to a report by BC’s Office of Human Rights claims.
Mishak added, "There's this misnomer that if you live in rural or smaller cities in B.C., your rent is substantially that much cheaper. It's really not the case."
Container community?
"We have lots of sea cans in Terrace," said Mishak. "It would be amazing to have a container community built with repurposed containers."
There is precedent for converting shipping containers into homes all over B.C. Canada's first such project — the Aitra Women's Resource Society's Recycled Shipping Container Housing Development — was completed in 2013 in Vancouver. The Comox Valley's WeCan Shelter Society opened their 13th and 14th sea can homes in Courtenay late last year.
One man who lived in the Comox Valley for the past decade was the victim of ever-increasing costs for rental units. He became unhoused but eventually got involved with WeCan and got a refurbished sea can studio unit with a bed, kitchen, and a bathroom with a shower.
“It means home,” he said. “It means having a door that I can actually close behind me, and it’s my place.”
Recipients of WeCan's container homes are chosen based on their ability to live independently and cohesively with others, as well as, being vaccinated. Each home has either been sponsored by or contributed to by community organizations and members.
Next steps with the research
People in and around Terrace over 19 have until Feb. 17 to fill out a survey asking for their thoughts about housing in the city. The purpose of the survey is to help the community and the researchers understand housing insecurity and public perceptions of homelessness in Terrace.
It is anonymous and can be filled out online, or paper copies are available at the 'Ksan Administrative Office at 444 Lakese Ave. It will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete and people who fill it out are eligible for one of six $50 gift cards.
"The survey is intended for everyone in the community to reply, not only those experiencing housing insecurity, because it's actually surprising how many people feel that they're not housing insecure," she said. "But when you start looking through the questions, maybe, you know?"
Mishak received a $35,000 grant from SPARC B.C., the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C., for her research. She has previously done research into housing insecurity in 2022 when she was with the University of Saskatchewan and looked into housing in Prince Albert. Mishask deployed a similar survey there.
The grant lasts until October and Mishak will look to make sense of the data she has collected by then. The results of the survey will be shared with the City of Terrace's Housing Needs Committee as well.