Official: 10 per cent of Nunavummiut without homes

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Almost 10 per cent of Nunavut’s people are waiting for social housing, but the real number of homeless could be much greater, a Nunavut government official says.

At a homelessness conference at Iqaluit last week, Sarah Flynn, the assistant deputy minister of the Nunavut housing department, revealed that 673 Nunavut families are now on waitings list for social housing units.

The conference was part of a cross-Canada tour by federal Labour Minister Claudette Bradshaw to collect information on the extent of homelessness in Canada.

“At a conservative average of three persons per family, that’s 2,019 people living with friends and family,” Flynn said.

“This does not include single people who generally do not apply, as families are given priority,” Flynn told Bradshaw.

Given it’s high birth rate, Flynn said Nunavut needs to add about 300 new housing units a year to stop the increasing numbers of homeless.

And she said Nunavut needs to work with the federal government to find new funding.

“We must now work with federal partners to get financial support needed to build and operate public housing,” Flynn said.

The federal government’s support for new social housing construction ended in 1992 when the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. stopped helping to pay for new construction. “Today in the largest community, we see the impact of that decision as the homeless begin to appear,” Flynn said.

Federal money for operationsand maintenance of Nunavut’s 3,500 social housing units is also being phased out.

Single people and young couples are most likely to be caught in Nunavut’s housing crunch, said Nunavut Housing Minister Manitok Thompson.

Suicide and homelessness

Those young people may leave their home communities in search of housing.

“The search leaves people at risk of poverty, depression and substance abuse,” Thompson said.

The brother of Iqaluit resident Madeleine Redfern was one of those trapped by the lack of housing.

“My brother was homeless from the age of 16 to 22. Unfortunately he is a statistic… he died last May,” Redfern said tearfully.

Moving from one friend or family member’s house to another caused her brother’s despair, the abuse of himself and others, she said.

Redfern said homelessness is a “root problem” that causes alcoholism, despair and violence, and she urged the minister to address homelessness if these other problems are to be eradicated.

And Thompson told Bradshaw more money will be “crucial” to attacking Nunavut’s housing crisis.

Qikiqtaaluk Corp. President Jerry Ell echoed the calls for new money and argued any real solution to homelessness in Nunavut comes down to more money.

“I would suggest $500 million would be needed to address the needs of Nunavut in terms of adequate housing,” Ell said.

More money from Ottawa?

Anti-poverty and homelessness advocates across Canada are also calling upon the federal government to pump more money back into social housing.

The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee is proposing the federal government spend an additional one per cent of its annual budget on housing.

And a spokesperson for the National Anti-Poverty Organization said the solution to poverty and homelessness is simple and requires money.

“The solution to homelessness is not that complicated. And once it’s identified as a do-able and solvable thing, I think we can move forward,” says Laurie Rektor, the executive director of NAPO.

Rektor argues that once adequate housing is found, many of the other social problems plaguing the homeless disappear.

Iqaluit is the 18th stop on Bradshaw’s cross-country tour. She toured the homeless shelter, the Qimaavik women’s shelter and the now-closed Sailivik Centre. She is collecting information and recommendations from municipalities.

Last week’s Iqaluit visit collected some of the first information on Nunavut.

“We hadn’t received anything specifically from Nunavut. So it was good today that I’m receiving things in writing that I will be sending immediately to Ottawa,” Bradshaw said.

Those recommendations are being examined by 19 federal departments. Ministers will then decide which recommendations to implement.

Bradshaw is expected to complete her fact finding tour next month. She will not write a final report with her own recommendations. Instead she will bring forward each community’s recommendations to improve the system.