Pay up or else, Nunavik housing body says

Nunavimmiut who are in arrears in rent for their social housing unit must start paying or risk eviction, says Andy Moorhouse (at the right), the speaker of the Kativik Regional Government council, at the recent KRG council meeting. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

KUUJJUAQ — If you live in a Nunavik social housing unit, get ready to pay your rent — unless you want to face eviction.

That’s the message Andy Moorhouse, chair of the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau, brought to the recent meeting of the Kativik Regional Government council in Kuujjuaq.

About 10 to 15 per cent of Nunavik’s 2,200 households in social housing don’t pay rent, said Moorhouse, who is also speaker of the KRG council.

More than $12.6 million is now owed in unpaid rent to the KMHB, more than $10 million of that accumulated since 1999.

Those who don’t make an effort to pay may face eviction next summer, Moorhouse warned.

“We don’t care as long as we can start collecting even $20 to $50 [a month],” he told the council. “Unless we are out of solutions we will not evict tenants.”

Single parents and tenants over 55 will not face eviction.

The highest levels of unpaid rent are found in Inukjuak ($1.1 million), Kangiqsualujjuaq ($1.1 million), Kuujjuaq ($2.1 million), Kuujjuaraapik ($1.4 million) and Purvirnituq ($1 million).

The highest levels of arrears in 2008 came from Aupaluk and Kuujjuaraapik where more than three in 10 social housing tenants didn’t pay their monthly rents and from Kangiqsualujjuaq, where four in 10 didn’t pay.

The $500 a month some pay for a four-bedroom house is only a small portion of the $4,000 it costs to maintain the unit, Moorhouse reminded the council, urging tenants “to start paying their rent.”

Due to the large amount of arrears, the KMHB is also being penalized financially from Quebec’s housing bureau, Moorhouse said.

The Quebec housing bureau would like to see tenants in Nunavik pay 25 per cent of their monthly income in rent — the amount paid by other social housing tenants in Quebec.

Social housing tenants who don’t pay their rent also make others suffer, some councillors said at the meeting.

People who are on the waiting list for housing feel angry because they don’t have a place of their own to live although others who never pay rent have a roof over their heads, said Mary Pirlutuut, the mayor of Kanigqsujuaq and its regional councillor.

Some Kuujjuammiut even have to leave Nunavik to live in the South because they can’t get housing, said Larry Watt, the mayor of Kuujjuaq and its regional councillor.