Episode 3 – Rent. This is Not the Musical.

Tenancy fees, or rent, are a vital source of revenue for many Aboriginal communities, helping to pay for repairs and maintenance to Chief and Council owned homes. Rent can be used as a revenue stream to purchase new homes. However, implementing a system to collect a tenancy fee, or rent, is one of the most common challenges facing many First Nations.

When tenancy fees or rent are not charged or these fees are not paid, many communities have little or no additional finances to make repairs to the homes. For many Chief and Council, tenancy fees or rent are the most important source of income used to maintain homes and invest in new housing.

 In this podcast we want to look why the paying rent is so controversial among many communities’ members.

To bring some understanding to the payment of rent we are talking with two people who know this topic very well.

First Derek Cameron, Director of Housing for Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation in Saskatchewan whose community have implemented a rental program and Roxanne Harper a consultant from Turtle Island and Associates Inc who works with communities to establish a rental program.

Interviews:

• Mr. Derek Cameron, Director of Housing, Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation

• Ms. Roxanne Harper, Vice President, Turtle Island and Associates Inc.