Public housing in Nunavut: What’s changing?

Between now and the end of the year, the Nunavut Housing Corporation will create new ways of charging rent, and new ways of helping public housing tenants become homeowners.

Here’s a list of what may change:

• If you’re on income support, your rent will probably double, from $32 to $64 a month.

• If you earn money by working for wages, your rent will be calculated in a new way as of Jan. 1, 2003, so that you’re not penalized so much for getting a job.

• Students, youth and elders may get special exemptions.

• People living in overcrowded units or units that are in poor condition may be charged reduced rents.

• Until the new public housing rent scale is announced, your rent will be frozen, as of July 1.

• Starting in September, the housing corporation will encourage you — if you’re eligible — to buy your unit through a new program called “TOP,” the “Tenant-to-Owner” program. Mortgage payments would be based on 20 per cent of your gross monthly income, minus costs such as utilities, insurance, taxes, and monthly land lease payments.