Members of a northern Anishininew family could spend Christmas in an old school bus after their trailer burned down last week in the remote, fly-in community of Garden Hill First Nation, Man., leaving 17 people with no home.

While community leaders have been trying to come up with a better alternative for the extended family now staying in the uninsulated bus in frigid temperatures, the First Nation 500 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg is in the midst of a housing shortage.

Ricky Knott — who lived in the trailer with his family of eight along with his brother’s family of eight and their father,