b'MODULAR HOUSINGNUQOs micro duplex and triplex Village Home units are designed to meet rapid housing needs for people vulnerable to homelessness or fleeing violenceIndigenous extras. Rory wanted room for potlatch and room for single menfor dignity. There should be spaces that make it easier to care for Elders or for extended family units. She didnt try to force a Western housing model onto Indigenous families, Keple explains. Even as shes trying to push a rock up a hill as an Indigenous woman in a male-dominated industry, she didnt compro-mise, adds Keple. She said I want three things: I want it affordable. I want it high-quality. I want it to be a home that people can live in. It was risky, and lots of folks are going to say no, but she never wavered.In addition to the Squamish Nation project, NUQO has a contract to design, fabri-cate and install elements of a 70-unit housing build at Kwantlen First Nation, as well as projects pending in Alberta and Saskatchewan that will soon be announced. The company has already doubled the size of its staff in the past year and is continuing to expand.NUQO isbreaking down three barriers, sums up Douglas. [We are] bringing a Come work with us new material into the industry, bringing We are innovators who believea womans voice into the industry as a leader, and bringing an Indigenous busi-that successful collaborationness into the industry. comes from all over Canada For Richards, the companys mission is clear: Our goal is to be an advocate and a builder of Indigenous housing and to serve Nations across the country. Im standing up and building homes for other Indigenous women and families as if they were my own. I focus on the end goal, which is a safe and secure place for other Indigenous women and their families. When I let that vision and that goal guide me, the rest is just noise.60A CCAB PUBLICATION2022Hitachi Energy_CCAB_Sept 2022.indd 1 8/29/2022 12:35:25 PM'