Nunavut’s housing crisis by the numbers

NUNATSIAQ NEWS

* Number of Nunavummiut on social housing waiting lists: 15 per cent of Nunavut’s population
* Number of new social housing units that Nunavut requires to catch up with current needs: 3,000
* Number of new social housing units that Nunavut requires each year to catch up with new needs: 250 per year
* Number of new social housing units that Nunavut will need to catch up with current needs five years from now: 4,000
* Number of new social housing units to be built over the next two years under last year’s one-time-only grant from the federal government: 160
* Total number of dwelling units in Nunavut: 8,200
* Total number of social housing units in Nunavut: 3,900, or 45 per cent of all dwelling units
* Total number of Nunavummiut living in social housing: 14,000, 98 per cent of whom are Inuit
* Proportion of Inuit who live in overcrowded conditions: 54 per cent
* Proportion of urban aboriginal people in Canada who live in overcrowded conditions: 13 per cent
* Proportion of rural aboriginal people in Canada who live in overcrowded conditions: 19 per cent
* The rate of tuberculosis infection in Nunavut, attributed to overcrowded conditions: 25 times the national average
* Average construction cost in Nunavut for one social housing unit: $250,000

Sources: Nunavut Tunngavik’s presentation to the House of Commons standing committee on aboriginal affairs on April 19, the Nunavut Housing Corporation, and Statistics Canada.