Nunavik’s housing body needs a revamp: KRG councillors

“We need to be an independent decision-making body”

By SARAH ROGERS

Some KRG councillors would like to see a revamp of the housing agency that oversees social housing in Nunavik. (FILE PHOTO)


Some KRG councillors would like to see a revamp of the housing agency that oversees social housing in Nunavik. (FILE PHOTO)

KUUJJUAQ — Regional councillors at the Kativik Regional Government sounded the alarm over Nunavik’s housing woes at their Nov. 27 session in Kuujjuaq, with some calling for a revamp of the housing agency that oversees social housing across the region.

Mary Nassak, the KRG regional councillor from Kangirsuk, who was also appointed as a KRG representative to the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau’s board of directors, called the agency’s current set-up “chaotic.”

Nassak said many of the KMHB’s problems stem from its structure, which she says prevents Nunavimmiut from making decisions about their own housing.

“There are issues that we are concerned about and we can’t make decisions because we have no power,” Nassak told the KRG council Nov. 27. “No one hears the cry of people in Kangirsuk. We need to be an independent decision-making body.”

The KMHB was established under Quebec’s Société d’habitation du Québec a little over a decade ago to manage social housing in the region.

And with its creation, the KMHB adopted many of the provincial agency’s southern policies.

The decision about how social housing is allocated remains with the regional government, KRG chair Maggie Emudluk pointed out, although she said many of its policies aren’t adapted to Nunavik’s realities.

“There are no community representatives at the KHMB — that’s the snag,” Emudluk said.

Emudluk said the KRG has pushed for many years to designate the KMHB chairperson role — currently held by Michael Cameron — as a full-time position, although that’s not currently the case.

Emudluk committed the KRG to discussions with the SHQ in 2014 on how to make changes at the bureau that would allow it to better respond to the region’s needs — including the notion of having an independent housing body in Nunavik.

The housing needs of Nunavimmiut are many and varied, from frustration over rising rent to the ongoing shortage of about 900 housing units across the region.

“There have been a lot of demands and a lot of complaints,” said Jennifer Watkins, a KRG councillor and KMHB board member, pointing to protests held across the region in October.

Social housing tenants across Nunavik showed up at KMHB officers Oct. 3 to protest the agency’s latest rent hikes and eviction policies.

Watkins said the issue she hears most often from Nunavimmiut is housing that is too small to accommodate their families.

“There seems to be more and more families in need of three-bedroom homes,” Watkins told the KRG council Nov. 27. “The two-bedroom units don’t have a second entry/exit, and that is a problem.”

Makivik Corp. has stepped up its efforts to address Nunavik’s housing shortage, pressing the federal government to meet its obligations to the region.

Its efforts appear to be paying off; Makivik president Jobie Tukkiapik will meet with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development minister Bernard Valcourt in Ottawa Nov. 28 to discuss the region’s housing file.

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