Nunavik MNA says home ownership program needs a fix

About 97 per cent of Nunavimmiut live in social housing or housing provided by their employer. The region’s MNA says a home ownership subsidy needs to be revised to offer better support for people to purchase their own homes. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Nunavik’s representative at Quebec’s National Assembly says the province needs to do more to encourage home ownership in the region.

Ungava MNA Jean Boucher said the government wants to offer better support to new and existing homeowners, to help Nunavimmiut move away from its reliance on social housing.

Through its social housing agency, la Société habitation du Québec, Quebec has funded a program that offers subsidies to Nunavimmiut who want to build their own homes.

In its current form, the home ownership program is designed to offset up to 75 per cent of the cost of constructing a home, up to a maximum price.

But since the program was last revised in 2012, only nine units have been built under that home ownership program, while five more clients have been approved for subsidies to start building in 2016.

“The current program has to be revisited,” Boucher said. “It’s not as attractive as we hoped.”

Nunatsiaq News asked Boucher about one particular element of the home ownership program: the ability to receive a subsidy to purchase a previously-owned home.

It’s an issue Kuujjuaq home owners have raised — without financial support, selling your home in Nunavik can be just as hard as building a new one.

Under Nunavik’s home ownership program, the SHQ can decide to issue a subsidy to someone who purchases a home from an owner who has already qualified for the same subsidy.

But the agency has yet to issue subsidies for second-hand buyers, which has left some homeowners in the lurch.

“It’s a hurdle we’re trying to overcome. There’s no real private re-sale market in Nunavik and it’s something we’d like to start,” said Boucher, who worked for the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau before he was elected MNA in 2014.

“It would be nice to see second-hand buyers able to benefit from the subsidy, even if they’re buying from a previous home owner.”

The numbers are telling: only three per cent of Nunavik residents own their own homes, an estimated 95 houses across the region, the majority of these located in Kuujjuaq.

But not only should buyers be eligible for subsidies when purchasing a previously-owned home. Boucher said that home owners who’ve received the subsidy once should also be able to sell their homes and receive it again to build or buy a second home.

As part of the current Quebec Liberal government’s re-launched Plan Nord, the province also announced a “buy back” program, which would allow a limited number of home owners to sell their homes back to the province, via the KMHB.

That’s one other way to guarantee that homeowners can access their equity when they decide to sell.

But that program has yet to be put in place, Boucher said, and will be discussed as part of the overall review of Nunavik’s social housing program.

Boucher would also like to see better maintenance support offered to homeowners, particularly those in Nunavik’s smaller communities.

“In Kuujjuaq, we’re spoiled, because we have electricians and plumbers,” he said. “But in Ivujivik, you’re stuck with the problem.”

But all signs indicate that Nunavimmiut will wait some time before anything changes. Boucher says that, while the issue is important, there is no timeline for completing the review and implementing changes.

That’s not to mention the Quebec government’s austerity measures put in place this year to eliminate the province’s deficit.

“The government is in a restrictive period, financially speaking, but yes, there’s been dialogue,” Boucher said.

“We’re trying to find a solution.”

Since the SHQ’s Nunavik home ownership program was last revised in 2012, it has invested about $4.5 million into the region, the housing agency said, including $2.8 million towards construction costs and another $1.7 million for occupancy assistance.

At least some of the program’s budget appears to have been redirected into 70 new social housing units for the region as part of the current Liberal government’s relaunched Plan Nord, announced earlier this year.