Pelly Bay (Oct 11/04) - Laetitia Apsaktaun lives in a four-bedroom house in Kugaaruk with about 12 other members of her family.

Thankfully, they get along with each other. They have to, said Apsaktaun. It's the only way when you live in a community where there are not enough houses for people to live in.

Teddy Apsaktaun, left, and his wife Laetitia on their couch Oct. 4, along with their granddaughter Courtney, 3; grandson Terrance Teddy Jr., age 1; daughter Shannon, 17 (holding Terrance); and youngest children Kelly, 14, and Jordan, 9. An additional five people live in this house. - photo courtesy of Laetitia Apsaktaun

Last week, Apsaktaun allowed some of her family to be photographed in their home for Nunavut News/North in order to show the public what overcrowding looks like.

She is not ashamed. She wants something to be done about it.

"Did you get the picture of the porch?" she asked last week. "It's a bed because my house is too full," she said.

One of Apsaktaun's family members has been sleeping in the tiny porch for three months now because he's homeless. "That's his only privacy," she said.

"In Nunavut, we should not have homeless people," said Apsaktaun. "It's not our culture. There are starting to be a lot of people like that -- homeless. It's not right."

Three families live in the house.

"We are happy," said Apsaktaun. "It's just the beds that's the problem."

In virtually every Nunavut community, families are crying out for more houses, more room to grow and live normal lives.

Apsaktaun blames the new government for not doing enough to help people live here.

"After we got to Nunavut it started being like this," Apsaktaun said. "I remember when we were in the NWT they used to send us houses. It was not enough, but right now it's really hard to get a house."

"We have a housing crisis," said Peter Scott, president of the Nunavut Housing Corporation last week. Two two-bedroom duplexes were built in Kugaaruk last year, said Scott. This year, material for four two-bedroom units was delivered.

But Scott knows it's not enough.

He helped unveil a 10-year funding plan with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. recently that demands action from the federal Government on Nunavut's housing crisis.

Scott said the GN is doing all it can to help people, but the current funding Nunavut receives for housing is totally inadequate for the realities here.

Apsaktaun has seen housing problems crush people's self-esteem in her community. It hurts to see this because it doesn't correspond with her idea of what Nunavut was supposed to be about -- self-esteem for Inuit and better lives.

"People are embarrassed about being homeless," said Apsaktaun. "They are embarrassed they couldn't get a house." But Apsaktaun also said that people are starting to speak out.

There are more stories circulating in the communities about families in shacks with no running water.