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Aboriginal People in Manitoba 2000 Chapter 7 : Housing and Mobility

Changes of residence within the same municipality account for most of the difference in apparent mobility rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

Metis people are actually more likely than North American Indians to indicate on the Census that they had a different residence one or five years ago. However, this is simply because Metis people are more likely to live in the very large municipality of Winnipeg, where movements within the municipality are more likely. Of 37,405 Aboriginal people in Winnipeg aged 5+ in 1996, only 10,385 had lived in the same residence five years earlier.

A study of residential mobility done for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples based on 1986-1991 data found that Winnipeg had the highest proportion of Aboriginal people moving of any major urban area in Canada – 72% of respondents in 1991 reported a different residence five years earlier. Clatworthy et al reported:

Aboriginal housing consumption was examined in relation to three commonly-accepted consumption standards: including affordability, adequacy and suitability …Regardless of household type, Aboriginal households in Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg reported a considerably higher incidence of housing consumption deficiencies than those residing in other areas. Although moving represents an opportunity for the household to bring housing consumption better in line with needs and resources, most Aboriginal moves resulted in housing circumstances which continued to fail accepted consumption standards.¹¹

In 1996, approximately 30% of Aboriginal households had moved from one Winnipeg residence to another in the past year alone. This is high compared to many major CMA’s in Canada, but typical of Prairie CMA’s:

Among major Canadian urban centres, Winnipeg has among the lowest rates of Aboriginal home ownership, and Aboriginal households who rent are approximately twice as likely to have moved in the past five years as those who own their homes.¹²

Probably, housing tenure explains most if not all differences in rates of intramunicipal moves between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal households, and among different types of Aboriginal households. Among Aboriginal single parent households in Winnipeg, less than 10% own their dwelling unit, which is a lower rate not only than two-parent households, but also non-family households. Consequently, the five-year moving rate for Aboriginal single parent households, at 80%, is higher than for two-parent households (65%) and non-family households (75%).¹³ The relative persistence of non-Aboriginal people in their residences, of course, links back to their much higher rates of home ownership.

Due to the concentration of rental units in the inner city of Winnipeg, moving rates are generally much higher in these neighbourhoods, particularly among Aboriginal residents. Not captured by Census information is the number of families who may move several times over a five-year period. A 1995 study by Manitoba Health observed that:

Migrancy [frequent movers] is a particular problem for inner city children …Migrancy combined with poverty, single parent families and other social difficulties further exacerbates the difficulty of school aged children. In a 1992 review of inner city schools, the lowest [annual] migrancy rate was 40.6%. The highest rate was 84.7% …Seventy-five percent of migrants were from unemployed single parent families …In a nine-month period in 1992/93, there were 3,058 single parent family moves out of a possible 3,553. ¹⁴

For example, William Whyte School (K-9) had the highest mobility rate in Winnipeg School Division No. 1 in 1997-98: with a total average enrolment of 243 students, there were 218 transfers.¹⁵ If each transferred student moved only once, this would mean that of 20 students in a classroom in June, only two would have been there in September. However, some students are transferred more than once each year. The effect of this level of disruption on the children’s education is immediately obvious.