Housing crisis getting worse
Senate committee finds federal funds poorly managed
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, March 13, 2017
IQALUIT
Sen. Dennis Patterson recalls vividly his visit to an overcrowded Iglulik home this past spring, as part of on-the-ground research for a Senate committee report on housing in Inuit Nunangat.
The Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples released the report We Can Do Better: Housing in Inuit Nunangat, on March 1. - photo courtesy of the Office of the Hon. Senator Dennis Patterson |
"They were so crowded that the son and daughter-in-law had to live in a plywood shack behind the house. We were invited into that shack by the young couple with their small baby," he said.
"It was really a shocking situation -dark, poorly insulated and primitive heating. It was a real concrete example of the desperation to which people have been driven."
The Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples released the report titled We Can Do Better: Housing in Inuit Nunangat, on March 1.
The report provides 13 recommendations to the federal government, many directed towards the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which manages capital funding allocated towards Northern housing initiatives.
The crisis is getting worse, not better, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed states in the report, with a 50 per cent increase in housing need over the last 15 years.
The Senate study took place between February and June of 2016.
The committee heard from more than 50 witnesses, including Inuit governments and community members, Northern housing authorities, indigenous organizations, academics, architects and youth representatives. In April 2016 they visited Iqaluit, Iglulik and Sanikiluaq in Nunavut as well as Kuujjuaq and Inukjuak in Nunavik.
"The need in Nunavut has been quantified at well over 3,000 units," said Patterson.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation estimates a single public housing unit to cost between $400,000 and $550,000.
"We have a housing crisis and I think that's probably known, but we tried to also show that it's not just a housing crisis, it's a health and safety crisis as well," said Patterson.
The report states that overcrowding is directly linked to respiratory illness, the spread of tuberculosis, high suicide rates and poor education.
Patterson noted that boom-and-bust funding has caused problems in the past where governments have been required to spend a lot of money quickly, and often inefficiently.
"Our report is about more effective and better use of the monies that are available for housing in the Inuit regions," he said.
It also found that multiple federal departments are investing resources in development of more innovative housing options and building designs for the North, without collaborating on research. These included the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the National Research Council and Polar Knowledge Canada.
Besides the lack of new housing, the Senate committee found that funds for maintaining existing housing was decreasing. At its current rate of decline, this funding will reach $0 by 2037, states the report.
"Yes, we have a shortage of housing and yes, there is overcrowded housing that needs to be supplemented with new units. But we have got to be able to take care of the units that are there," said Patterson. He said maintenance is being offloaded onto territorial governments.
The 2017-18 Nunavut budget allotted 13 per cent of over all funds to the Nunavut Housing Corporation. Finance Minister Keith Peterson said in his Feb. 22 budget address that the GN plans to build 17 staff housing units and 95 public housing units in the coming fiscal year.
During witness testimonies, the Senate heard from Inuit federal employees who could not access staff housing because they were considered locals.
"Government hiring policies seemed to favour southern hired staff over Northern hired staff when it comes to providing housing or housing benefits," said Patterson.
Some Inuit youth find this reality especially difficult, as employed adults without dependents cannot access social housing.
"It took me seven years to get a house," Olivia Ikey, the Ungava representative for the Qarjuit Youth Council, testified.
"I graduated high school through adult education, I had no children and a good paying job and they said, 'We're sorry, we can't give you a house.' So then I said, 'Well, I should have dropped out. I should have had a child.' You start to reconsider your life choices."
