The majority of Nunavut residents live in subsidized housing units such as this one.

“There has been a shortage of good decent housing for a lot of years,” says Hill.

“It’s almost in a crisis—it has been for a number of years,” says Hunter Tootoo, a member of the legislative assembly of Nunavut and the minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation (NHC).

The federal government’s Economic Action Plan outlined a $200 million investment over two years for the renovation and construction of social houses in the territories. Federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq and Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Chuck Strahl announced the government’s plan to allocate half of that amount to Nunavut.

“This announcement is good news for us — it’s good news for the people in our community and for the economy,” says Tootoo, adding that the funds will go toward the construction of new houses in the territory.

There are about 1,500 families on the waiting list for houses, says Tootoo. He estimates that 700 units are required per year to keep up with the population growth. The NHC currently has 4,700 social housing units in its stock, 725 of which fall under a $200 million housing trust that the federal government gave the territory in 2006.

“It’s great that the federal government is seeing this as an ongoing need but what we’d like to see is this as an annual contribution,” says Natan Obed, the director of social and cultural development for Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. An annual amount would allow the Nunavut government to solve the housing problem over a predetermined amount of time.

Issue of overcrowding prominent

Overcrowding, defined as more than one person living in a house per room, is one of the main problems associated with a lack of housing, says Dianne Kinnon, director of Inuit Tuttarvingat, one of the centres of the National Aboriginal Health Organization. About 39 per cent of the Inuit population in Nunavut live in overcrowded housing conditions, according to the 2006 Census. This compares to the five per cent overcrowding rate for non-Aboriginals in the territory and three per cent rate for non-Aboriginals in Canada.

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Hundreds of people are waiting for housing in most communities—some wait for 10 to 15 years, resulting in multiple generations living under the same roof, says Obed. It is not uncommon to find up to 10 people living in a two-bedroom house, he says.

Inuit are very family-oriented and would not turn away a relative or a community member, said Kinnon.

“Our homelessness issue here is hidden because people couldn’t survive here on the street,” says Tootoo.

Building a private housing market and owning a house is difficult in a place such as Nunavut where there are low employment rates, limited access to credit, isolated communities with extremely high costs of living, and virtually no local capacity to build and maintain houses, says Obed.

There are very few communities — Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit — in which some individuals own homes. In most other communities, about 95 per cent of the inhabitants rely on social housing, he says. About 28 per cent of the population in Nunavut actually own their own homes, according to a 2004 report by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national organization representing Inuit in Canada.

There is the problem of not only a lack of housing, but also existing houses that need renovations, says Kinnon.

Most of the communities in the North were created in the ‘50s and ‘60s and have problems such as broken boards and stairwells, outdated sewage and water systems and poor ventilation, says Kinnon.

Twenty-six per cent of the approximately 24,590 Inuit living in Nunavut reported they lived in a home in need of repair compared to 13 per cent of the non-Aboriginal population, according to the Statistics Canada 2006 Census analysis series.

Health a concern as well

"There’s a need to make sure that existing units aren’t dangerous for the people who live in them,” says Obed.

Poor health is one of the byproducts of a lack of social housing and existing houses that are in bad condition, says Hill.

A lack of ventilation and dampness in the houses often leads to respiratory illnesses, says Kinnon. Often when individuals go hunting, they will come home with wet clothes, and this adds to the pre-existing dampness. Studies have also shown that rates of tuberculosis (TB) in Aboriginal populations are 10 to 20 times higher than Canada’s average.

If there is someone with active TB in an overcrowded house, it is worse, because it is easier to transfer the illness, says Kinnon.

Indirect effects of overcrowding are also present in Inuit communities. It is often difficult for children and teenagers to find a quiet place to do homework, says Kinnon. The stress of overcrowding, she adds, can lead to mental health issues and often violence due to conflicts between individuals.

Obed says he hopes people will see these problems as ones that can be overcome, rather than ongoing challenges that cannot be solved. He adds that overcoming these challenges can help unify individuals living in the territory.

Related Links Capital News Online Archives 1998, “Looking for a place to call home in Nunavut” Statistics Canada: Aboriginal Peoples in Canada in 2006: Inuit, Métis and First Nations, 2006 Census: Inuit Habitat for Humanity’s most northerly remote build in history Nunavut Ten Year Inuit Housing Action Plan (PDF)