Amid the far-reaching housing crisis, Iqaluit\u2019s homeless are among the nation\u2019s most burdened sectors.<\/p>\n
The federal government has previously estimated that Nunavut needs more than 3,000 affordable units to accommodate current housing demand.<\/p>\n
With over 4,900 individuals on the waiting list for low-cost housing, a significant proportion of the city\u2019s homeless are Inuit forced to live in run-down homes. Many of these people are either elderly or stuck taking care of small children \u2013 and those who do have employment and incomes are not fortunate enough to be able to afford the market\u2019s rental rates.<\/p>\n
The Nunavut capital\u2019s average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment stood at $2,648 in 2017, the latest CMHC reading for the oft-neglected market.<\/p>\n
A recent announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might offer a semblance of hope: The federal government has vowed a $290-million, eight-year investment in developing and expanding Iqaluit\u2019s social and community housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognize that this is a big step forward that is going to make a huge difference in creating thousands of homes and we know this is really going to make a tangible impact in the lives of people here in the North,\u201d Trudeau stated, as quoted by The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n
However, while Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq and Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern welcomed the endowment, they stressed that the severity of the situation requires more drastic, immediate action.<\/p>\n
\u201cNunavut is a cold and harsh environment and it\u2019s no place for anyone to be homeless and we\u2019re happy for this funding. We also need transitional housing and homeless shelter funding,\u201d Savikataaq emphasized.<\/p>\n
Average temperatures in Iqaluit have been measured to go as low as -27 \u00b0C.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is like the tip of the iceberg, but we are thankful for what we\u2019re getting and we\u2019ll be working with the federal government to come up with a good strategy in terms of how to alleviate more of our housing crisis here,\u201d Savikataaq added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amid the far-reaching housing crisis, Iqaluit\u2019s homeless are among the nation\u2019s most burdened sectors. The federal government has previously estimated that Nunavut needs more than 3,000 affordable units to accommodate current housing demand. With over 4,900 individuals on the waiting list for low-cost housing, a significant proportion of the city\u2019s homeless are Inuit forced to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22113,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8454\/revisions\/22113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}