When government attention began to focus on housing, many aboriginal people lived in small, uninsulated shacks or cabins and wintered in tents. The government embarked on a program for standard Indian housing in the 1950s, usually one-room houses constructed of plywood and without insulation, running water, electricity or indoor toilets. While improvements have been made in the quality of on-reserve housing over the past thirty years, many families continue to suffer from lack of housing. Nearly one in five aboriginal families live in a house with at least one other family. Approximately 12,000 new housing units are needed today and approximately 10,000 Indian homes need major repair.
Aboriginal people are four times as likely to suffer loss or death by house fire.
Until housing improves, the death rates for preventable diseases among aboriginal people will continue to be many times higher than in the rest of Canada. It is clear is that substance abuse, in and of itself, is not the greatest problem facing aboriginal people, but is merely a symptom of many problems facing aboriginal peoples. As more individual aboriginal people recognize and admit that substance abuse is a huge problem, aboriginal communities will be caalled upon to provide culturally-appropriate support to assist healing. There is denial and fear of AIDS in aboriginal communities, just as there is in the rest of Canadian society. Many aboriginal people still believe that AIDS is a gay white man's disease.