Mayor of Iqaluit creates affordable housing task force
“The whole system is completely broken and we need to find a way to fix that”
Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell has announced the creation of a new task force to address the city’s critical housing issues. (File photo)
Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell has announced a new task force is being created to help address the city’s serious housing shortage.
According to a Nunavut Housing Corp. report from earlier this year, Iqaluit had 434 people on the public housing waitlist in 2019.
Even with the addition of 40 units being built in Nunavut’s capital later this year, the report indicates that 394 people will still be on the waitlist.
“The whole system is completely broken and we need to find a way to fix that,” Bell told Nunatsiaq News.
This task force, announced on on Monday, June 1, is meant to address that.
The task force was created by Bell, deputy mayor Janet Brewster, Iqaluit-Manirajak MLA Adam Arreak Lightstone and Laurel McCorriston, the executive director of the Uquutaq Society.
They’ve reached out to other stakeholders, including both the federal and territorial governments, the Nunavut Housing Corp, the Iqaluit Housing Authority, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association.
“I ran for mayor to make change. If we can put a dent in our housing issues we will strengthen our core and be on the right track for a successful future,” Bell said in a news release.
While the question of what solutions will look like is a discussion for the task force, the problems are self-evident.
Aside from the public housing waitlist, according to a 2019 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. report, Iqaluit has a 0.9 per cent vacancy rate.
The average rent for a two-bedroom dwelling is $2,678, which is nearly 1.5 times that of Yellowknife and more than double that of Whitehorse.
The same report also indicates that in 2019 the average price of an Iqaluit home was $509,542.
According to Bell, the task force’s four founding members will meet later this week to discuss priorities and terms of reference.
In addition to seeking interested members from various governments and organizations, Bell also wants to hear from Iqalungmiut.
“There are always groups out there that are operating in silos and we want to try to make sure that we understand every angle we can,” said Bell.
Comments can be sent to Bell by email.
Finally,a Mayor showing true Leadership,on the Housing crisis in Nunavut,now the rest follow
As a former resident of Iqaluit and a founding member of Habitat for Humanity Iqaluit, I recommend that you add a member of HFHIQ (Habitat for Humanity Iqaluit) executive to be included as a member of your Task Force?
I and my wife have participated on 5 international builds since we left Iqaluit. The positive impact of home ownership cannot be highlighted enough. We continue to contribute in a number of ways in support of HFHIQ
I read an interesting story on the Internet recently. In that story Nunavut high school students build their own houses at the end of grae 11, after having worked as a junior helper at the end of grade 9 and then as a senior helper at the end of grade 10.
–
From page 110 of How It Happened (www.HowItHappened.ca)
–
“When we went to the house-of-wood that next Fall, Quitsaq and I helped Anirnik build her starter house.
–
There were only a few rules about starter houses. The roof had to be sloped, for drainage, but it could not be too steep – for safety while building and also when being on the roof. The roof could either slope only one way, or it could slope in two opposite directions. The house had to be only one story high, but if the roof sloped two ways, it could have small, attic-type rooms under the peaked roof. It had to have at least two doors, in case of a fire or being snowed in. It had to use one of three different, pre-built
utility room modules. Wiring and plumbing should be associated with interior walls whenever possible.
–
After you finished building your starter house-of-wood you owned it, sort of. In the first two years you could only sell it to Nunavut Housing Corporation. After two years you could sell it to any Nunavut resident who did not already own a starter house-of-wood. Nunavut Housing Corporation supplied several standard designs that students could modify, but structural modifications had to be reviewed by NHC for safety. Alternatively, you could design your own starter house from scratch. But
few kids did that, in part because the safety review for such custom designed houses took much longer. ”
–
I sure wish I would have had the opportunity to build my own house in High School.
1. Get everyone a copy of Not Home in the Homeland – Indigenous People and Homelessness in the Canadian North.
2. Read all the other studies, reports, and findings as to the underlying issues.
3. Bring in a mathematician to understand how building a home at $400,000, renting it for $60/month (if you collect the rent) , paying $20,000/annum to maintain and operate, can give you a return
4. Don’t, please don’t come up with a final report that says the Federal Government must put more money into building more houses in the North.
5. It must be a made-in-Nunavut solution (NTI what are you doing with the billions $$??). Devolution is fast approaching people
6. Sacrifice…if you give up mineral rights than have the mining companies build homes for their employees which takes pressure of other social housing
7. Find a solution to encouraging our youth to stay in school and get skills and education. Then a job, then a home, and then a family.