Olsen comes by her experience in First Nation housing from more than three decades living on Tsarlip Indian Reserve near Victoria, B.C., “I met my husband and moved there when I was 17 years old and I raised my family there,” she says. “It's a very nice place to live. I worked in housing at Tsarlip beginning in the early 1990s.”
Olsen is a founding member of the board of FNNHMA in 2006. She worked in provincial and national Aboriginal housing committees over the years. She is doing a Ph.D. in First Nation housing based on the history of Aboriginal housing development in Canada. She has other interests as a storyteller at heart, as a writer-in-residence at Carson Graham School in North Vancouver, B.C.. “I am a member of the Victoria Storytellers Guild.”
Olsen works with Mike King at FNNHMA (Housing Manager of Beausoliel First Nation in southern Ontario since 2000), and Nancy Hamilton at Vancouver Island University's Distance Education Department. Mike King describes a bit of FNNHMA history, “We work-shopped the idea of a housing managers certificate program with CMHC when we started the organization in 2006. We received funding from CMHC to visit housing trade shows and conferences, get a website established, and start developing a proper job description for housing management.”
Mike says, “It's really all about property management on-reserve. Property management comes into it because the area of responsibility grows when you consider the tens of millions of dollars in property management we are discussing. It involves rents, mortgages, and asset management. A lot of these administrative functions are being done on a part-time basis. Much more needs to be done.”
Success is in the wind, says Olsen, “We have developed the Housing Managers Certificate Program 101.” The first module of FNNHMA certification has been delivered. It was piloted in three locations around B.C. in 2008/09. Fifteen students took the course in Nanaimo, and other classes were held in Terrace and Kamloops.
She was the initial facilitator teaching the course. Now the graduates are chomping at the bit to get the rest of the certification, “A complete curricula will include finance, administration, communications, and construction management,” she says. “Once it is all put together, VIU will work-up the details on national certification.”
The Atlantic provinces also received pilot programs from FNNHMA, “We delivered pilot courses in Moncton and Halifax. We are now shore-to-shore with the program. There is strong interest in Quebec and Ontario Aboriginal housing, and we are working out the language questions for FNNHMA to certify in Quebec. We feel the urgency to get the whole thing going on a national basis.”
The curricula should be complete by the end of this year, she says. The way it stands VIU is now ready to deliver Housing Administration course one and two, and the course on finance is well underway. The course on communications is at hand, and Olsen will commence writing the last module on construction before the end of winter.
“We will be done in 2010,” she says, “VIU is really dedicated to developing this program. They are applying for extra funds and showing themselves to be an exceptional school. At the same time they recognize it is FNNHMA's initiative.” The FNNHMA certificate will be delivered at other universities like the Aboriginal department of a college in Sault St. Marie, Ontario.
One of the main battles for FNNHMA is to establish appropriate financial remuneration for these certified housing managers. “Finding the wage for certified housing managers is one of the challenges. You have precedents out there but a great deal depends on the financial state of the Band.” Even so, “Across Canada we have some of the most amazing people working in housing management on reserve,” and she notes, “The force of their expertise and a certification process will help make housing management certification a national reality."
Housing on-reserve is changing. “Lots of people are working to resolve the structural issues in First Nation housing. Poverty remains the main problem in housing. Another problem is that housing remains entirely government-run,” whereas other social activities like health and education have been taken over by the First Nations. “Aboriginal housing will eventually be,” sooner rather than later, she says, “under the direct control of First Nation leadership.”
FNNHMA is composed primarily of a board of directors at present. “We took a run at creating membership when we started the organization. Now we have the foothold to started a second membership drive. It has been a huge project to get a certified housing managers program and we have worked hard to get this production done. To roll it out nationally is cumbersome but it will become part of the whole group of housing organizations in this country.”
