The head of a private credit organization launched to accelerate housing development in Indigenous communities says the fund gives Canadian investors an opportunity to earn a return on their capital while creating positive change across the country.
“Indigenous housing has been in a crisis for over 30 or 40 years,” Tracee Smith, founder and CEO of Keewaywin Capital, told BNN Bloomberg in a Monday interview.
“This is really the first time that Canadians have a chance to participate in a fund like this… now is a time to start to do more to contribute so that the average Canadian can help and contribute to making it not a crisis anymore.”
Keewaywin, which translates to “going home” or “going back” in Oji-Cree, is a 100 per cent Indigenous owned company, according to its website.
Smith said the fund presents an opportunity for private investors looking to use their capital to impact positive change. She said Keewaywin is also filling a lending void left by Canadian banks.
“The banks sit on billions and billions of Indigenous deposits but continue to not lend to Indigenous communities to build more homes or fix the homes that they currently have, and I think now, private investors are saying: ‘We want to do more,’ and that’s really what this credit fund is for,” she said.
“Investors who have money and are sitting on cash can put it to good work and can actually see these houses being built and see the communities that are impacted by this.”
Smith said Keewaywin completed an initial funding round last week that raised $10 million, and the fund hopes to raise another $20 million to $30 million by September.
“We’re really trying to get some strategic investors who really want to impact Indigenous funding, get a return, but also know that there’s a social side to this as well,” she explained.
Smith said that until now, Indigenous communities looking for housing funding have had no other choice but to rely on the federal government, which she acknowledged is spread thin.
“We understand that the government only has so much in their coffers. Government dollars is really the only door that Indigenous communities have been able to knock on and it’s just not enough - it’ll never be enough,” she said.
“I think the real policy reform needs to come from government to the banks to say: ‘You need to start lending more, you need to start releasing more of your capital assets to Indigenous communities and find a way to lend.’”
Smith said that Canadian banks have historically been resistant to lending money to Indigenous communities for housing development, specifically those on reserves.
She said that banks typically claim that they can’t mortgage properties that are on Indigenous reserves for legal reasons related to treaties, but “those days are done.”
“Banks sit on $50 billion to $100 billion of Indigenous money and they refuse to lend to end this housing crisis. That needs to stop,” said Smith.
“The private investors in our communities who are coming into our fund agree… I hope in the next three, five or 10 years that banks will do more to release the money that is actual Indigenous money back to the community to build more of these houses.”
Encouraging that kind of policy change from Canadian banks is the most important thing the federal government can do to support Indigenous communities looking to end the housing crisis, Smith said.
“That’s what really needs to change in terms of policy because credit funds like ours shouldn’t have to exist when the money’s there, it just needs to be lent to the right people,” she said.
