Nunavik’s partial rent freeze still awaits government assent

A social housing unit under construction in Nunavik’s Hudson Strait community of Kangiqsujuaq in 2009. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

An amendment proposed last July that would temporarily freeze rent for some of Nunavik’s social housing tenants is still waiting for a green light from the Quebec government before it can come into effect.

But the region’s social housing body, the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau, is still asking its lower-income renters to have their 2013 Notice of Assessment ready to produce at their local housing office in order to be eligible for the freeze.

This past July, the Quebec government finally agreed to negotiate a new rent scale for Nunavik’s social housing tenants.

In the meantime — and in response to a request from the Kativik Regional Government and Makivik Corp. — the government said it would freeze rents for certain tenants.

Regional leaders asked for the freeze to be put into place until a review of the region’s rent scale could be carried out, taking into account Nunavik’s cost of living.

The amendment would suspend the annual eight per cent increase over a one-year period for Nunavik’s middle earners, retroactive to July 1, until a new scale can be established.

As the amount of rent paid in Nunavik is calculated to a household’s income, low-income tenants won’t be affected by the freeze.

The measure would benefit Nunavik’s middle-earners, households that make roughly between $40,000 and $90,000 a year.

That group makes up roughly 55 per cent of social housing renters in the region, or about 1,100 households.

But while the amendments were published this past July in Quebec’s official Gazette — where the government publishes its decisions — it must still be endorsed by Quebec’s cabinet, le Conseil des ministres, and then re-issued in the Gazette before the partial freeze comes into force.

The province’s social housing agency, the Société d’habitation du Québec, said that should happen over the next couple of weeks.

At that point, Nunavik’s middle-income renters can bring a copy of their 2013 Notice of Assessment into their local KMHB offices to have their rent adjusted.

“Once the by-law comes out, tenants have 30 days to bring us their notice of assessment in order to benefit from a possible rent freeze retro-active to July 1,” said Watson Fournier, manager of the KMHB.

“If the tenants bring in their notice of assessment after the 30-day period then, if they are eligible, will only benefit starting the next month.”

Fournier said some of Nunavik’s housing offices have already received notices from tenants, which will be processed once the new regulation comes into effect.

Ungava MLA Jean Boucher, who announced the partial rent freeze, has said that starting this month, the Quebec government will sit down with Nunavik organizations to work out a new rent scale for the region -something he hopes will be finalized by the end of 2014.

Housing officials in Nunavik hope so too; over the last year, the KMHB has become a sounding board for the region’s housing woes, with Nunavimmiut going public with their frustration over the cost of rent and the condition and availability of social housing.

The KMHB’s 2013 housing survey determined that Nunavik needs at least 899 new units to meet the region’s growing demand for more housing.