Nunavut government continues homelessness survey in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet

The Government of Nunavut’s Family Services Department will continue to survey the territory’s hidden homeless: people who need their own homes, but are crammed in with others. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavut will continue its survey of homelessness in the territory this week and next, with staff from the Government of Nunavut’s poverty reduction division working with local teams in Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet, April 18 to April 19.

They will continue the survey in Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk and Kugaaruk, April 23 to April 25.

Survey team members plan to speak with individuals who are staying in shelters, living in shacks or sleeping without shelter.

“This work will provide a ‘snapshot’ of homelessness in these communities,” the GN said in a news release.

If you provide Information to the those involved in the survey, it will be kept confidential and anonymous, the GN said.

The surveys will ask questions about food security. After completing a survey, each respondent will receive a $25 gift card for a grocer of their choice.

The GN previously surveyed homelessness in 2010, through the Nunavut Housing Corp. It found that about 1,220 people in the territory live with temporary sleeping arrangements.

The results of this survey, funded in part by the federal government’s Homelessness Partnering Strategy, are intended to add to the information collected through household survey work.

That has wrapped up in Pond Inlet and Clyde River, and will be conducted in Arviat from April 23 to May 4, and in Gjoa Haven from May 7 to May 10.