Nunavik plans change to rent scale

ODILE NELSON

Nunavik is edging toward a new rent scale for social housing that will see Nunavimmiut pay monthly rates based on their net incomes.

Nunavik renters currently pay a fixed monthly rate based on the age and size of a housing unit and whether the occupant receives social assistance. It does not take into account a renter’s individual earnings.

But the Société d’habitation du Québec has been pushing for changes to Nunavik’s social housing rates since the Kativik Municipal Housing Bureau officially took over social housing from the provincial government in 2000.

Social housing tenants in other regions of Quebec must base their rental rates on their individual incomes. Their monthly payments are 25 per cent of their net earnings.

The provincial government wants Nunavik to adopt a similar system.

“This has been developing over a number of years with the SHQ. Under the social housing program with the federal, provincial and territorial governments, the provinces and territories have to charge a rental fee based on income and in Nunavik that’s never been applied,” Johnny Adams, chairman of the Kativik Regional Government, said in an interview this week.

The imminent change was at the centre of the KRG’s regional council meeting held in Umiujaq last week.

Most regional councillors at the meeting voiced concerns that the people they represent may not be able to afford the change given the region’s high living costs, Adams acknowledged.

But he said Nunavik’s proposed rental rate would not be as high as in the rest of Quebec. It will be between 15 and 18 per cent of an occupant’s net income instead of the province-wide standard of 25 per cent.

Adams said this could actually result in savings for some Nunavimmiut.

“Let’s say someone’s annual income is $20,000. If you take 18 per cent of that income, the highest proposed percentage for Nunavik, it would be $300 a month. It’s not an enormous amount,” Adams said. “You can even see a drop for some people on welfare or old age pensioners. Right now, old age pensioners are not getting any special treatment. Their rents will be reduced [under the proposed changes].”

The 2001 social housing rent scale began at $115 for a one-bedroom unit built after 1980 and occupied by a social security recipient. The rated peaked at $391 for a six-bedroom unit occupied by an employed Nunavimmiut and constructed after 1980.

Adams also pointed out the change will be gradual and will not begin until July 2003 or 2004. He said he hopes the government and other private agencies will amend their own rental rates before then so that all renters in Nunavik will be paying similar rates by the time the new social housing rent scale applies.

The government and some agencies provide subsidized housing for the region’s municipal, health, police and education employees.

“You don’t only change the rules for one sector of Nunavik,” Adams said. “The vast majority of people living in social housing are Inuit.”

Nunavik’s unique rental scale can be traced back to 1981 when the province took over management of the region’s social housing from the federal government.

The next year the Quebec government developed a rent scale for Nunavik where rental rates were much lower than in the rest of the province.

At the time, the Quebec government said social housing rates should be lower in Nunavik than in the rest of the province because the 800 social housing units the province had inherited from the federal government were below national habitation standards.

Since then, Nunavik’s social housing rates have scarcely increased while construction and operating costs have grown substantially with inflation.

In 2000, the operating deficit for the 1,778 social housing units was more than $49 million. There are now more than 1,800 rental units across Nunavik.

Pierre Dubé, an information officer with the SHQ, said all three organizations had worked together to develop proposals taking into account the region’s high cost of living and Nunavimmiut’s capacity to pay their monthly rents.

He also said the SHQ hoped an anticipated federal subsidy for affordable housing in the region would be introduced before any change to the region’s social housing rates.

This program, he said, could encourage wealthier Nunavimmiut to purchase their own homes and open up social housing units to Nunavimmiut on waiting lists.