How do you divide 160 houses by 14 needy communities?

KUUJJUAQ — Nunavik can expect to receive a good portion of nearly $40 million of new federal money earmarked for off-reserve aboriginal social housing in Quebec.

Over three years, this could lead to the construction of 160 two-bedroom units in the region.

But dividing up social housing among 14 needy communities can take a long time and isn’t much fun.

Just ask the Kativik Regional Government councillors who struggled for several hours during last week’s council meeting on how to divvy up 60 housing units to be built in 2007.

Despite a subsidized social housing construction program, which has put up to 60 units a year in Nunavik for the past five years, the region still lacks several hundred housing units.

The communities in the region which have the greatest need for housing are Inukjuak, which needs 31 per cent more houses, and Kangirsuk, which needs 30 per cent more houses — even after this year’s construction of 24 units in Inukjuak and 20 in Kangirsuk.

Other communities with a severe housing crunch are Akulivik, Kangiqsujuaq, Tasiujaq, Salluit and Umiujaq — which the councillors determined would receive new housing in 2007: 22 for Salluit, 14 for Akulivik and Kangiqsujuaq, six for Umiujaq and four for Tasiujaq.

The Kativik Municipal Housing Board and Makivik Corporation, which supervises the social housing construction program, will consult the communities to see if they want two- or four-bedroom units — however, larger units mean fewer units.

The councillors based their division of housing units on the number of households that lack housing after eliminating those communities receiving new units in 2006 — Inukjuak, Kangirsuk, Aupaluk and Ivujivik.