Iqaluit’s low-barrier shelter to open in January

Uquutaq Society’s new $40-million low-barrier shelter is slated to open in Iqaluit in January.

The new building is located downtown at 158 Nipisa St., near The Snack Restaurant.

Uquutaq Society’s emerging new three-storey facility includes 44 low-barrier shelter beds on the second floor and 13 single-room transitional housing units on the top floor. The main floor will be a warming centre during the day. (Photo by Daron Letts)

“This is a low-barrier site, meaning you don’t need to be sober or unimpaired [to enter],” said society CEO Laurel McCorriston in an interview in September.

Named by elders as Ullivik, which means “the place you wait for the tide,” the three-storey, 44-bed facility will offer 16 beds for women, 24 beds for men and two rooms for couples, which can also serve as private space for individuals in need of quiet or privacy.

The building includes an additional 13 single-occupancy transitional housing units on the top floor.

Currently, the only other low-barrier facility in the city is the society’s 17-cot overnight shelter at 534 Niaqunngusiariaq Road, which accommodates five women and 12 men nightly.

Last year, that shelter provided more than 6,000 overnight stays and served more than 800 meals of caribou, char and maataq.

“Ullivik provides a huge increase in services for people,” McCorriston said.

The first floor features a commercial kitchen, dining room, showers and a laundry — part of a year-round warming centre that is accessible daily. It includes a self-contained room with sofas, armchairs and a television.

A first-floor balcony will serve as a smoking section, preventing guests from smoking in the streets, McCorriston said.

Ainiak Korgak was among the elders at Iqaluit’s Elders’ Qammaq last year who brainstormed names for society staff to choose from.

Frobisher Bay’s tides, among the biggest in the world, ebb and flow on a 12-hour cycle, making Ullivik an apt name for the new shelter, he said, in an interview Thursday.

Ainiak Korgak, among those at Iqaluit’s Elders’ Qammaq who brainstormed names for Uquutaq Society’s new $40-million low-barrier shelter. (Photo by Daron Letts)

Ullivik symbolizes “renewal,” Korgak said.

“The tide comes in and takes away your shortcomings,” he said. “That’s one way of looking at it.”

The new facility developed “pretty fast,” McCorriston said.

The society applied for funding in February 2023. Forgivable and repayable loans through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. covered a little more than half the cost. Indigenous Services Canada chipped in $13 million and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association contributed $1 million.

Reaching Home, a homelessness program managed by Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, pitched in $500,000.

NDL Construction Ltd. is leading the build, originally scheduled for completion in December.

Uquutaq’s next initiative is the $27-million Butler Supportive Housing Project, located next to Capital Suites at 804 Aiviq Street, which will provide 32 additional single-occupancy supportive housing units. The long-term housing option includes support staff on site.

Piles were installed this summer and structural steel was added this month.

That federally funded project is expected to be completed by 2028.