Life on Iqaluit’s mean streets

JOHN THOMPSON

Thirteen-year-old girls trading sex for shelter, and single mothers sleeping with their babies beside automated banking machines — these are a few grim anecdotes of homelessness in Iqaluit, pulled from a recent federal report.

Titled “Homelessness in the Territorial North,” the report, prepared for the federal department of human resources and development and released last week, explains to southern bureaucrats what’s widely known in Nunavut: there are homeless people here, but because of long, bitter winters, they drift from one overcrowded dwelling to the next, rather than sleep on the streets.

The report calls the territory’s housing shortage “hidden homelessness,” and links it with many social problems, such as domestic abuse of children and women.

“By all accounts, the extent, trajectory, and spin-off consequences of homelessness in Nunavut are truly dreadful,” the report reads. “These facts ought to be better understood in the South, from where money for the solutions flows.”

“Nunavut is alone, among the territories, in that the main solution to its homelessness problem is so clear.”

That solution, says the report, is more housing. The report points out that the $300 million spent by the Conservative government to improve housing across the North is only enough to keep pace with growth, and not nearly enough to solve the problem of overcrowded housing.

It also points out the federal government is unlikely to publicize this.

“Most likely, they will only be stabilized and mitigated; it is hard to imagine any federal government that would be eager to broadcast this message and risk further expenditure when there are many national priorities.”

One Nunavut resident who answered a survey for the report said there’s nothing hidden about homelessness for those who live in the territory.

“It’s not a good feeling when it’s a whiteout and you have some smashed or stoned guy crashing on your couch or the floor. You can call this hidden homelessness if you want, but it seems pretty absolute to me,” wrote one respondent, who answered a survey for the study.

The report estimates that Iqaluit, with a population of about 6,500, needs an additional 1,000 bedrooms.

And with Iqaluit’s population boom expected to continue, the report projects the capital will need between 1,181 and 2,243 new units by 2022.

In Iqaluit, all this means that the Oqota homeless shelter has its 20 beds filled most nights.

And with temperatures dropping as the long winter sets in, the shelter this week overturned its “zero-tolerance” ban on alcohol and drug abuse.

Drunk or stoned residents in need of shelter will no longer be turned away, provided they aren’t disruptive. Instead, they will trade their bed for a floor mat for several weeks — offering an incentive to stay sober.

“If they’re manageable, we’ll take them in,” said Carol-Anne Scott, director of the shelter.

“It’s the time of year. I’m getting concerned now,” she said. “It’s getting cold, and let’s face it, we all need a warm place.”

Scott said she’s glad of any attention the report draws to homelessness in the territory, but wishes she had been one of the 22 organizations contacted during the author’s surveys.

“Not one of these people called to talk to me,” she said.

Scott is hesitant to guess how many homeless residents live in Iqaluit, but said she heard one recent estimate that about 300 women have no home of their own in the capital. If that’s the case, she said there are probably just as many men.

“That means there’s at least double that,” she said.

All this makes recent allegations made in the House of Commons worrying: that the federal government could be preparing to cut money spent on homelessness programs.

Two weeks ago, the NDP’s Irene Mathyssen accused the Conservative government of planning to drastically cut homelessness funding to the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative, from $133 million a year to only to $2 million a year.

Iqaluit has received $1.6 million over the past six years from this federal program. That money has gone towards funding the Oqota homeless shelter, the Tukisigiarvik drop-in centre, the elder’s home and the soup kitchen.

Diane Finley, minister of human resources, replied that the government has no such plans to cut homelessness funds.

Still, Ed Picco, Nunavut’s minister responsible for homelessness, plans to meet Finley this week, he said, to ensure this federal funding is protected, and continues in the future.

As it stands, the homelessness funding is set to expire April 2007, unless the government decides to renew the program.

Iqaluit’s city council also weighed in on the matter during a meeting this Tuesday, when they passed a resolution calling for the federal government to renew funding to the national homelessness initiative.