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MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET
Nunavut's MLA for Tununiq, Joe Enook, continues to live in a shack in Pond Inlet with his wife Mary Kilabuk while they await a decision by the local housing association.

Mary Kilabuk and her husband Joe Enook, the MLA for Tununiq, pose for a photo with Nunavut Commissioner Edna Elias after Enook's swearing-in Sept. 22. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

The housing association was expected to hold a special meeting to discuss their situation Nov. 17, but no details from the meeting were available before the press deadline.

Enook promised he would move to Pond Inlet if he won a by-election Sept. 12, but arrived in the community Nov. 3 with no housing other than the shack where he and Mary have been staying. It has no running water and only a Coleman stove for heat.

Their situation highlights the need for more housing in the hamlet, where one in every five people aged 15 and over is on the public housing waiting list.

The couple does not qualify for public or government staff housing, but there are only about 50 housing units in the community not classified as such. Housing turnover is not high, realtor John Matthews of Atiilu Real Estate in Iqaluit said.

"It's not a healthy real estate market," said Matthews, one of the territory's only realtors, noting he has sold a few homes for other parties, including one earlier this year. "I am managing one property that is being leased. I don't know of any other properties."

Hamlet economic development officer Colin Saunders points out that Enook does has the option to buy or build.

"The last time I know of a private house selling was in the last six months are so, but they come up very infrequently," Saunders said. "You're not going to find anything in the community for under $200,000. Discussing things with the construction company here, you're looking at a $300 per square foot construction cost, if not more. It's not cheap."

The cost may explain why most people live in public housing. Of the 320 occupied homes in the hamlet, just under 66 per cent were public housing, and about 20 per cent were owner-occupied or government staff housing. That leaves about 15 per cent, or about 50 homes, in the private market with another 30 unoccupied or temporarily occupied by those from out of town.

Enook assumed some private rentals would become available this month, but none materialized. He does not qualify for government staff housing and, as a last resort to finding a permanent home, applied for social housing.

The upper earning limit to qualify for public housing in Pond Inlet is $85,500. While Enook's salary was not disclosed, as of March 2010, at minimum he would earn the same base salary as his predecessor, $76,909, who also received a $23,151 Northern allowance for a total of $100,060; Enook will also earn several thousand dollars as deputy chair of the committee of the whole.

Enook was told the local housing association had a house available for him, but the Nunavut Housing Corporation (NHC) responded that he did not qualify. The only exemptions would be made for victims of fire or violence.

No one from the Pond Inlet housing association would comment on the matter, referring all calls to NHC president Alain Barriault. His office refused to comment to allow the local housing association to handle the situation following its own policies and procedures. Barriault and Minister Tagak Curley were expected to spend Nov. 18 analyzing the outcome of the Pond Inlet housing association meeting on the matter.

Residents responded to Enook's promise that he would live in the community to better represent the community, a concern spurred by former MLA James Arvaluk's health problems.

"The community really needed the assistance of an MLA to get messages to the legislature," Saunders said, "and during that time there was built-up anxiety about needing an MLA in the community. When Joe got elected, he promised to move back to Pond, which the community wanted. The hamlet council supports him. He's not demanding a house, but he has a lot of support behind him to get a house."

Some residents have voiced concerns, he said, that Enook would get preference for public housing ahead of those who have been on a waiting list for more than five years. The Nunavut Housing Needs Survey, released Jan. 26 with data from Nov. 2009 to June 2010, stated there are 170 people or 20 per cent of people aged 15 and over are on the public housing waiting list in Pond Inlet. Of those, at least 10 have waited more than five years for housing (another 50 did not say how long they have been waiting).

"Nunavut's always been 10 to 15 years behind what the housing needs are in the smaller communities," Saunders said. "We appreciate every bit of it, but what they're building now was needed 10 years ago. When you have people waiting five or ten years for a house, you might want to look into what you can do to improve things for community members."

Speaking earlier this month in Toronto as the Munk-Gordon series guest speaker, Premier Eva Aariak addressed the housing problem.

"The demand for a place to live is so high and the cost of new construction so expensive that more than half our population is forced to rely on public housing," Aariak said. "In Nunavut, there is no such thing as a starter home for a young family. The stories of overcrowded living conditions are sadly not exaggerated."

The Pond Inlet survey described 47 per cent of occupied dwellings as crowded due to lack of enough bedrooms, more than half of those needing more than one extra bedroom.

Of the occupied homes, 180 were below housing standards due to crowding or due to their need for major repairs. Public housing units were the majority of those at 69 per cent.

The survey stated 1,100 people in Pond Inlet live in below standard houses. The 2006 census recorded 1,315 people in Pond Inlet.

To fulfil the territory's needs, the government would need to "exhaust the Government of Nunavut’s current capital budget for each of the next 14 years," Aariak told her Toronto audience, "and leave nothing for health centres or schools."

Saunders shares Aariak's concern for the social impact of the housing crisis.

"One of the biggest reasons for some social issues in the territory is the lack of housing," Saunders said. "The worst I've heard is we had 17 people living in a three-bedroom house with one bathroom. The grandparents, their kids, and the grandkids. What can you do? It's the situation we're in."

Twenty-one new units are opening in Pond Inlet to relieve the waiting list, he said, including two five-plexes, a duplex, an elder's facility and nine individual units. Another 10 lots are zoned and ready to lease. The hamlet has another 40 to 50 available in its long-term plan.

It's cold comfort for Joe Enook and Mary Kilabuk, who have dismissed suggestions that Enook could represent his community from elsewhere.

"The community would not have been happy if he decided to live in Iqaluit," Saunders said.

"He's at least shown them that he has the resolve to be here. Hopefully he can get a place soon, and get on with what he has to do."

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