Nunavik’s rent freeze finally comes into effect

Nunavik’s social housing tenants who are considered “middle earners” will get a break on last year’s rent hike, following a partial freeze that’s just come into effect. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Five months after it was first announced, a temporary rent freeze for some of Nunavik’s social housing tenants is finally official.

The Quebec government published a by-law in its official Gazette Dec. 10 that allows for a partial freeze of rent for tenants whose combined income was less than $90,000 in 2013.

The freeze will be retroactive to July 1, 2014.

That’s the same month the freeze was first announced, in response to a request by both the Kativik Regional Government and Makivik Corp. to Quebec’s social housing agency, the Société d’habitation de Québec.

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

Along with the freeze, the Quebec government has agreed to negotiate a new rent scale for Nunavik’s social housing tenants, who make up the vast majority of the region’s residents.

That 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 rent 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 impacted by the freeze. And neither would Nunavik’s high-earning tenants, who make more than $90,000 a year.

Nunavik’s middle-earners, households that bring in roughly $40,000 to $90,000 a year, will benefit from the freeze.

That group makes up more than half of social housing renters in the region, or about 1,100 households, the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau estimates.

Now that the freeze is in effect, tenants must bring their Notices of Assessment into their local KMHB offices by 5:00 p.m. on Feb. 19 in order to be eligible.

If tenants don’t have a copy of their assessment, they can call Revenu Québec at 1-800-267-6299 or contact KMHB’s Client Services at 819-964-2000.