Happy Nunavik social housing tenants win big prizes

Members of the hip-hop group sponsored by the KMHB perform June 5 in the Katittavik town hall at the Pivallianiq-KMHB Housing Day in Kuujjuaq. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

If you qualify for the Pivallianiq makeover program, you receive a fee assortment of cleaning products along with a guide and a chopping block featuring a design by artist Noah Meeko. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Tommy Sequaluk, a member of the KMHB hip hop group, and Jean-François Arteau, a former longtime Makivik Corp. lawyer who is now vice-president of the KMHB, read the names of the winners of several large prizes, including a washer and dryer, home theatre, six months free rent, a snowmobile and a trip to see the Montreal Canadians, pulled during a draw of all Pivallianiq participants. Three of the winners came from Umiujaq where nearly everyone has signed up for the program. The winners include: washer-dryer: Sarah Stone, Umiujaq; home theatre: Daniel Kumarluk, Umiujaq; six-months free rent: William Tuukak, Kangiqsujuaq; snowmobile: Susie Thomassiah, Salluit; and, VIP trip to see the Montreal Canadiens: Jobie Crow, Umiujaq. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Happy Nunavimmiut on June 5 included three people from Umiujaq, one from Salluit, and another from Kangiqsujuaq, who won prizes including a washer and dryer, six-months free rent, a home theatre, a snowmobile and a trip to Montreal to see a Montreal Canadiens game.

All because they proved they’re good social housing tenants.

The five won these prizes in a draw held on Nunavik’s second Pivallianiq — or “moving towards improvement” housing pride day.

That’s when their names and those of 460 other eligible Nunavik households where put into a draw for grand prizes in the region-wide draw in Kuujjuaq and in separate local draws for prizes including flat screen television, camera and one-month’s free rent.

But Pivallianiq isn’t only about winning prizes: it turns a house into a home, said the Kativik Municial Housing Bureau vice-president George Berthe at the Katittavik town hall auditorium event in Kuujjuaq.

“So keep your home tidy,” Berthe said.

Speeches and the Kuujjuaq grand-prize draw, broadcast to a background of a drum-roll live on the Inuttitut-language Taqramiut Nipingat Inc. network, took place in front of hundreds of elementary school students brought in for the occasion.

Their presence reminded Kuujjuaq mayor and speaker Tunu Napartuk that these young kids will be needing houses when they grow up — and with the unmet need for 899 new units in Nunavik, it’s even more important that Nunavimmiut take care of their social housing units, he said.

If tenants opt into Pivallianiq’s goals, the savings on maintenance could save the KMHB enough money to pay for 40 new social housing units

All of this year’s 465 Pivallianiq participants — up from more than 80 in 2012 — were first certified as good tenants through the Pivallianiq program.

“We beat our recruitment objectives and Pivallianiq is looking more and more like a real movement,” said Akinisie Sivuarapik who spoke in Kuujjuaq on behalf of Mary Nassak, the Pivallianiq programs spokesperson.

The program is now open to all Nunavik families in all 14 communities, where there are more than 2,600 social housing units.

Families can also get the KMHB certification to recognize efforts they have already made to maintain their homes, appliances and surroundings.

But to participate in the “Pivallianiq-Makeover Team,” you must be a KMHB tenant.

And your rent payment record with the KMHB must be in good standing (otherwise, participants must work out a special agreement with KMHB, which is still trying to collect on some of the more than $15 million owed to it in rent arrears).

To be eligible for the draws, you must hold a Pivallianiq certificate for complying with the “maintenance and cleaning guide,” handed to all participants along with a package of cleaning products.

When you qualify for Pivallianiq accreditation, you get a sticker to be put on your house window and a Pivallianiq Quartuvik cutting board with an engraved Noah Meeko drawing. If you qualify for a second year, you’ll get an ulu, too.

To get youth on board, Pivallianiq has also promoted a hip hop component to encourage youth to keep busy, by teaching them to beatbox, dance, sing and play games and, as Steven Leafloor, better-known in Nunavik as Buddha, too busy to break windows.

Last year the goal was to recruit 100 12- to 18-year-old boys and girls into the hip hop program — on hand June 5 in Kuujjuaq were several in this community’s group who performed.

On Housing Pride Day, Quebec’s housing corporation, the Société d’habitation du Québec, also plugged its the new program to promote home ownership and renovation in the region.

The $68 million program, managed by the KMHB, will help pay for 200 private dwellings in Nunavik.

Representatives from the SHQ, Pivallianiq’s backer, which is also spending nearly $40 million this year on renovations to social housing units in Nunavik, was also on hand in Kuujjuaq for Housing Pride Day.

Jean-Francois Arteau, a longtime Makivik Corp. lawyer now an SHQ vice-president, who spoke some words in Inuttitut, assured those listening that “the Inuit voice in heard loud and clear at the SHQ.”