"A Six Nations woman charging Brantford Native Housing"

Since 2007, Paula Longboat and her children have been trying to get Brantford Native Housing to correct serious health risks concerning mold as well as water and gas leaks in the home she had been living in Brantford, but to no avail. Moving her into a different home under Native Housing was denied her because she "did not fit the criteria", according to a Native Housing official, she says. As a result, Longboat has recently moved into the Ganohkwasra women's shelter at Six Nations.

According to Longboat, she had to move from her White Owl Crescent home recently due to persistent mold and painfully slow response to many reported problems.

After months of frustration, she moved out on October 3, 2012, due to her son's medical conditions exacerbated by improper maintenance repairs to the home.

According to a letter she sent to Native Housing dated Oct. 12, 2012, she submitted work orders in a proper and timely fashion, but due to what she suspects is a serious lack of communication at Native Housing, the repairs when they happened were insufficient and took far too long to address.

Longboat says that the mold she reported, which was causing both her and her sons distress, was not removed, but rather simply dry walled over and began reemerging again not long afterwards.

A water leak squirted on the basement wall for a long time without a serviceman coming to fix it. She eventually called Reliance, the company the leaky water heater is rented from, and after being told she was getting no satisfaction from Native Housing, a repairman came immediately. While working on the leaky water pipe, he also discovered a gas leak. He told Longboat she was very lucky that leak was detected before an explosion or fire could have easily broken out.

Over recent years, she has had Health and Safety inspector come in to check the air quality in the house, the Property Standards Inspector for the City of Brantford has been called in twice, and she called an Electrical Safety Standards inspector in to try and discover why she and her children have been sick so much.

She got a medical report as a result of these inspections. But still she believes her complaints have never been taken seriously by Brantford Native Housing.

"As a Haudenosaunee woman, and proud to be, it is taught by elders that we have voices and the right to be heard," says Longboat. "But as I've seen from Brantford Native Housing, it's very unfortunate it is our own people that treat us this way."

She has called the Landlord Tenant Act twice concerning her rights as a tenant, and of course, Native Housing staffers who she says informed her that a lack of funding has been responsible for the delays in handling tenants' complaints.

But while she waited, she and her two sons continued to be sick.

Longboat has made the principals at her younger son's elementary school and older son's high school aware of the problem because of the number of sick days both have had due to these health concerns in her home.

Reluctantly, she has felt it necessary to contact lawyer Michael Dow and has also made Laurin Kingsley, a Human Rights lawyer, aware of the situation.

Longboat discovered through documents she has obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that a failure to comply in a timely fashion after receiving a work order notice to have repairs done properly is an offense, and also that the inspector Native Housing initially sent was not certified.

"Every owner who fails to comply with an order that is final and binding is guilty of an offense and upon conviction, is liable to a fine of not more than $50,000 for the first offense, and to fines of not more than $100,000 for subsequent offenses," according to the the Landlord Tenant Act.

Longboat says the City of Brantford is now moving forward with her complaint since they are ultimately responsible because that they own the property.

Longboat has kept meticulous records of her ongoing fight to make her home a healthy place to live for her and her family, including copies of several work orders she has filed with Native Housing and photographs she has taken of problem areas.

She reports that she has also had problems in getting her refrigerator fixed, back when they were responsible for that. After 14 days, Native Housing sent someone to fix it, but in the meantime, she lost her food and had to replace it, and rent another fridge until hers was fixed.

According to Longboat, when she pressed Native Housing to come fix the problem she was told to put her food in the snow until someone came. When she reported a furnace problem, she was told to simply put more clothes on the kids. Eventually these issues have been fixed, but not without constant prodding by Longboat.

The case is now in the hands of her lawyer, but in the meantime, Longboat has been informed by her lawyer not to speak to anyone from Native Housing.

Brantford Native Housing's Housing Manager, Mark MacNaughton, told Tekawennake that he was aware of Longboat's complaints and that they are "dealing with the matter right now."

He would not offer any other comment at this time.

Longboat is no stranger to controversy.

Several months ago, Longboat was involved in a Human Rights complaint against a Brantford car dealer who was convicted by a Human Rights Tribunal of Discrimination.

The dealer sent her a letter containing offensive racial overtones when she fell behind in her payments on a van she had purchased from him.

In that letter to Longboat, the dealer wrote; "I didn't want to lease you the vehicle but when you promised repeatedly to pay me on time, I let you have the van. Now this is how you show your gratitude, by lying, cheating and stealing from me. Typical Indian."

The dealer, now out of business due to health issues, was ordered by the Tribunal to pay $15,000 to Longboat "as compensation for infringement of the Code and the injury to her dignity, feelings and self respect."