KIVALLIQ
The Kivalliq region is not going to catch up with the amount of housing needed and the best thing to take at this point is, "prepare for the homelessness and the social problems that will come as a result of overcrowding," According to Ian Copland, manager of the Arviat Housing Association.

There is simply not enough houses available for those applying for them and there's presently little hope the problem's going to be solved soon, he said.

It's common knowledge housing has long been an issue in Nunavut. Now, the Conference Board of Canada has just released a report on overcrowding called "Sleeping on the Couch," and it reveals that the Keewatin - the Kivalliq - region has the highest percentage of overcrowded homes in the country, with 25 per cent of homes housing six or more people.

In southern Canada, the highest percentage of overcrowded homes is four per cent. Overcrowding is a major concern in Arviat, Copland said.

"We're saying, let's build homeless shelters, let's build safe shelters for women, let's build more local jail cells for the increase in crime that will come as a result of overcrowding and the problems it causes, let's prepare ourselves for a lot more suicides, so we'll need more social workers and mental health workers," he said.

All the problems Copland sees coming could be prevented by having more houses to give residents.

However, with the Nunavut Housing Corporation recently announcing it currently has a shortfall of about $110 million to complete its planned housing, it doesn't look like the situation's going to improve any time soon.

The Nunavut Housing Trust, managed by the Housing Corporation, was created in 2006 with $200 million in federal funding to build between 700 and 750 housing units in Nunavut by 2010.

"The demand for new housing far exceeds the capacity that we're currently building at," said Arviat SAO Ed Murphy. "We're continually falling short in being able to supply housing."

When there is no housing available people, sometimes whole families, stay with relatives or friends. Adult children stay at home with their parents and some couch surf, bouncing from one home to the next.

"It affects most households, most families within the Whale Cove area," said the community's SAO Shawn Trepanier. Whale Cove, with about 350 residents, is scheduled to have nine units completed by fall 2011, "but that's still only the tip of the iceberg," according to Trepanier.

"A lot of people in Whale Cove are living eight or nine in a unit only meant for four or five people."

Overcrowding is hard on everyone, Trepanier said. "It's a whole negative impact on the entire family, it affects children's sleep, it affects their education, it increases the amount of colds and flus going around, it decreases how well people work together."

Rankin Inlet presently has 137 applications for housing, each one potentially representing an entire family without a home, said Goretti Kakuktinniq, manager of the Rankin Inlet Housing Association.

Kakuktinniq said money is not the only issue; there is funding for an elders' housing centre, and two five-plexes that should be complete by now but have been held up by contractors and supply issues.

"We need the builders to build the units and complete them in a timely manner," she said. "We have issues with gravel, we have issues with builders, we just need the community to work together in order to complete these units as timely as possible."

It's a problem that needs to be a priority, due to the hardship overcrowding brings on, Copland said. "They must be going through hell every day, their kids, they themselves, in the situations they're living under."

He said Arviat has been working to secure funding for a homeless shelter to help alleviate the situation. "I consider everyone on our waiting list homeless. We know we have 14 people we could put in a homeless shelter today."

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