Sharing a home with dangerous black mould is a fact of life for hundreds of people on the Gwa'Sala-Nakwaxda'xw First Nation outside Port Hardy, B.C.

Showing off the black mould permeating the walls of one vacant home, band council member Doug Johnny says it's an epidemic.

"In here there's a lot of mould, there's mould up there mould all around the walls, the corners," he says.

Although the unit he shows is empty, the adjacent ones aren't. The 500 people living on the reserve are crammed into just 120 such mould-infested houses.

"It's really bad," he says, "And it actually didn't come from the roof it comes from the foundation underneath."

Overcrowding is another impact of the problem. When the mould infestation becomes too unbearable, residents are forced to move in with other families.

Susan Walkus shares her home with five of her adult children and 17 grandkids. She says there's just nowhere else to go.

"There is 27 of us in here now," she says. "It's not right. They should have their own space. If their parents had their own homes I would see them having a better life."

The MLA for Port Hardy, Claire Trevena, has taken up the case, pushing the provincial government to clean up the problem.

"I describe it as third world conditions," she says. "It is appalling -- people living those type of conditions and I got to say if this was happening elsewhere and it wasn't hidden on a reserve there will be an outcry across the country."

So far, the help Trevena is looking for has not been forthcoming.

Band leaders want a state of emergency to be declared.

"The government isn't taken us seriously," says Chief Paddy Walkus.

"I've been trying to get governments both provincially and federally to take this situation seriously," says Trevena. "This is not the way people should be living."

Earlier this month, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl committed $50 million for housing on B.C. reserves to combat "substandard housing," but this money has not made its way to the communities.

The B.C. government says it is looking at the problem, but so far no real solutions have been found.

In the meantime, the mould and the living conditions for the Gwa'Sala-Nakwaxda'xw people are only getting worse.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's First Story and Stephen Smart