Repulse Bay (July 19/06) - Public officials are welcoming word the Kivalliq will receive 215 new public housing spaces, but warn the region needs hundreds more to solve an overcrowding crisis.

"I know one family with 13 people in the house," said Imelda Angootealuk, senior administrative officer in Repulse Bay.

The Kivalliq will see an influx of 215 housing units over the next three years thanks to more than $200 million from the federal government. The money will go mostly towards multi-plexes similar to these in Rankin Inlet. - Andrew Raven/NNSL photo Allocation A breakdown of public housing units expected to be built in Kivalliq communities between 2006 and 2009. The totals were announced last week by the Nunavut Housing Corporation. Arviat - 52 Baker Lake - 52 Rankin Inlet - 41 Repulse Bay - 26 Coral Harbour - 24 Chesterfield Inlet - 10 Whale Cove - 10

"This is a start (but) I'm sure they're not enough."

The building boom, made possible through a $200 million federal government grant, was announced last week by the Nunavut Housing Corporation.

The plan would see 215 units built in the Kivalliq between 2006 and 2009. Baker Lake and Arviat lead the pack with 52 spaces each. Rankin Inlet is second with 41, while the area's four smallest communities ­ Whale Cove, Chesterfield Inlet, Repulse Bay and Coral Harbour ­ are slated to receive 60 spaces in all. Most of the new buildings will be multi-plexes, according to the housing corporation.

"These new housing units will help in our battle against over crowding," said housing minister Olayuk Akesuk in a media release.

"This is an opportunity for each community to benefit from the construction with training, employment and economic development."

The construction would mean an 18 per cent increase in public housing spaces for the Kivalliq. But according to government estimates, billions of dollars are needed to solve an over-crowding problem that has reached epidemic levels.

Just over half of Nunavummiut ­ 15,053 people ­ live in subsidized housing.

The territorial government estimates Nunavut needs 3,000 new units to meet national living standards and that number is expected to grow another 2,700 spaces in the next decade. Overall, the new units would cost about $1.9 billion, according to a 2004 report from the Nunavut Housing Corporation.

Arviat senior administrative officer Cary Merritt said he was "almost certain" the hamlet's waiting list for public housing is longer than the 52 planned units.

The situation is similar in Repulse Bay where most of the hamlet's 800 residents live in government subsidizes houses, said Angootealuk. And she believes the space crunch will get worse in the next decade.

"The growth rate (here) is high," she told Kivalliq News last week. "There are babies being born every month."

Some construction is scheduled to begin this fall, with most units going up in 2007 and 2008. About 725 units will be built across Nunavut.

Merritt wondered, though, whether there would be enough skilled workers in Nunavut to accommodate the construction boom given the red-hot job market in the south.

The territorial government is training a batch of between 35 and 40 tradespeople it hopes will take over the maintenance of the buildings once they are finished.