Proposed boarding house backed by Iqaluit planning committee
27-room facility would house people who rely on shelters, says Uquutaq Society executive director
Laurel McCorriston is the executive director of Uquutaq Society. Iqaluit’s planning and development committee showed support Tuesday for McCorriston’s proposal to build a new boarding home in the city. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
This story was updated on Thursday, June 20, at 11 a.m. ET.
A proposed 27-room boarding house in Iqaluit would be an affordable place to call home for people who currently live in shelters, says Laurel McCorriston, executive director of the non-profit housing organization Uquutaq Society.
The City of Iqaluit’s planning and development committee voted to grant a development permit to Uquutaq during its meeting Tuesday, where city planner Mathew Dodds outlined Uquutaq’s plan.
The society plans to construct the three-storey building with 27 single rooms in downtown Iqaluit on a lot once occupied by the Butler Building, near the Capital Suites hotel.
The “co-living” building concept includes private units and bathrooms, as well as shared kitchen spaces.
Uquutaq’s bid was the winner of a 2022 lot competition for the property. Since then, the society has demolished the old building and disposed of hazardous materials from the site.
Coun. Simon Nattaq raised concerns about the proposed boarding house’s accessibility.
McCorriston answered that the building will an exterior ramp to the entrance, an interior ramp to the second floor, as well as accessible rooms.
In response to a question about staffing from Coun. Romeyn Stevenson, McCorriston said the plan is to have staff on site during the day and a superintendent during evenings, as well as security who would travel between Uquutaq’s other buildings in the community.
Uquutaq Society hopes to build this three-storey, 27-room boarding house in Iqaluit for people in need of an affordable place to live. (Screenshot courtesy of the City of Iqaluit)
After receiving the committee’s unanimous support, McCorriston told Nunatsiaq News that the project would help house a variety of clientele, including young workers looking for an affordable place to live, as well as people currently living in Uquutaq’s men’s homeless shelter.
“Some of the people who are in the shelter are quite capable of living independently,” McCorriston said.
“We find people come to the shelter because they have jobs here but they have no place to stay.”
McCorriston estimates the building will cost $30 million to build. So far, Uquutaq has secured $2.7 million from Nunavut Housing Corp. and $10 million from National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Inc.
More fundraising and tendering is required, McCorriston said.
“The shelter at 1077, a lot of the men have been there for more than 10 years,” she said.
“It’ll be a great celebration for them to be able to have them move to a place they can afford and they can manage.”
Correction: This story was updated to remove incorrect information about the proposed facility’s ramp access.
1.11 million per room.
A single family home selling for 900k with 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms should almost be considered cheap now.
Looks like the BCC addition.
exactly, same architecture Right ? looks like Architechs can’t come out with anything new or different the just copy the BCC Jail architecture plan BCC 2.0
At 1.1 million per bedroom this is crazy.
How does the organization and funders think this makes sense. Obviously someone’s friends will be getting rich from this build.
The cost for this building should be around $10 million. Time for a shakeup to their management.
1 million a bed…30 million could be spent purchasing 176 arctic proof tiny homes. self-sufficient for energy use, water use etc…there is plenty of land to put them on.
You would still have 5 million left over for additional services and supports for people
Housing 176 independently and permanently versus 27 in a boarding home…this seems like a 35 million dollar vanity project for Uquutaq.
Wow! I agree for 30 million you could buy 30, three bedroom homes. If those homes were shared, that would take care of 90 people instead of the 27 suggested by this move. I know the reliance is on Government monies, but there s possibly a better spend. Heck if you built 30 new homes and tapped into Nunavut 3000 monies that might help the funding that much better. Call these transitional, call them short term, call them whatever you want. But programming and supports are still required. 30 Million for 27 rooms equals a lot of money wasted when it could do so much more. Just my 2 cents.
Is there no way to clean the asbestos from the old rez by the airport?
No, and it is beyond just an asbestos issue at this point.
What else is wrong with the building?
That is a crazy amount of $$ for what really is a shelter. Maybe if they build their own “HAP-style” housing, they might have more accountability and not destroy their housing. And probably cost a lot less?
Just wondering , what did the relatively New Aqsarniit hotel cost; this $ 30M price tag seems pretty extraordinary for this purpose…
Looking into it,the Hotel and Conference centre cost about $70 million to build. 94 guestrooms, 80 some seat dinning room and a huge 186 seat conference room, economic benefit of employment to the community as well. For a project in the North, its a good price.
Who’s getting the money for this scam? Even at currently inflated prices, there are plenty of entire houses for sale, in Ottawa, with several bedrooms and priced well under a million dollars. If a house needs work, then get the people staying there to do it. Here’s just one listing picked at random, for $550,000.
https://www.houseful.ca/ottawa-on/283-richelieu-avenue-ottawa-on-k1l-6k2/pid_stv1jloier/
In any case, what actually doing something useful and necessary for beneficiaries by using some of the billions of dead money in the Nunavut Trust?
Too many receiving tax benefits versus too few paying tax. And the pendulum is swinging even further to take from those that work to give to those that don’t.