Nunavut Housing Corp. not providing residents with fair access to public housing: Audit

CBC

6 days ago

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The Nunavut Housing Corporation has not provided Nunavut residents with equitable access to suitable public housing, according to an audit from the Auditor General of Canada released Monday.
The housing corporation is responsible for public housing in all of Nunavut's communities. It also funds and oversees local housing organizations, which manage over 6,000 public housing units.
More than 60 per cent of Nunavummiut rely on public housing, 45 per cent of which is overcrowded, according to Nunavut Housing Corporation data included in the auditor's report. The audit covered a timeline from April 1, 2022 to December 31, 2024.
The audit found the housing corporation did not know whether publicly funded units were being allocated to applicants who needed them the most.
Nunavut's local housing organizations use a points-based system to allocate housing — meaning the applicants with the greatest need get more points and receive priority. Points are supposed to be allocated based on financial need, how many bedrooms a family needs, and how bad the conditions are where the applicant is currently living.
But the auditors found that these guidelines were not being followed in Nunavut communities.
"We reviewed each point-rating system and found that each one was inconsistent with the NHC's guidance," the report said.
In one Nunavut region, housing authorities didn't award any points for affordability in any of their communities, meaning applicants there who were living in unaffordable housing didn't get any priority on public housing waitlists.
The auditors also found the housing corporation's oversight of its housing waitlists to be poor, and that the organization did not regularly monitor the allocation of its units.
"Therefore, the NHC could not demonstrate that the public housing units were given in an equitable manner and to those who needed them most," the report said.
Lapsed inspections, 4.5-year waitlists
The audit also found that NHC did not properly monitor whether local housing organizations were doing regular inspections to assess the living conditions in public units.
Inspections should take place every two years according to NHC, but the audit found most inspections dated back to 2018 — making them six years old. The condition of the unit also affects its rental price.
"This means that for the majority of units in our sample, tenants may have been paying more or less rent than they should have had the unit condition rating been updated," the report said.
They also said NHC could not provide evidence to show that it reviewed the public waitlists on a monthly or quarterly basis.
"We found that the NHC did not have plans on how to address the accessibility needs of Nunavummiut living in public housing."
The housing corporation also did not have up-to-date information about mould levels for most of its public housing units, the auditors found.
The audit also found the average amount of time for an applicant to be on a public housing waitlist was 4.5 years.
18 units finished since Nunavut 3,000 launch
In 2022, the Nunavut government launched its Nunavut 3,000 strategy to address the territory's longstanding housing crisis. It aims to build 3,000 homes by 2030.
For its part, NHC is responsible for building about 1,400 of those homes.
The audit said NHC faces challenges in meeting thattarget, including securing land and finding qualified personnel.
It also found the government has not clearly communicated its progress on its goal to build 3,000 homes. It counted 221 units as part of its number of completed units, but those units had been built before Nunavut 3,000's launch.
"We found that the NHC did not clearly communicate in the strategy that it would be counting units that started prior to the strategy's launch."
Since Nunavut 3,000 launched in October 2022, 18 public housing units had been completed as of December 2024.
It also found the targets for Nunavut 3,000 each year were based on the number of new housing units started, not completed.
That meant the targets didn't accurately reflect how many units would be ready in a given year. While NHC said it had completed its target for 2023-2024 of 150 units, only 18 of those units were ready to be lived in.
Canada's auditor general also audited NHC in 2008, when it found the housing corporation did not adequately monitor the maintenance of public housing units.
The report said it is "concerning" that the same recommendation was made 15 years ago and hasn't been followed through.
The audit makes 10 recommendations to NHC, all of which were accepted.
In a press release Monday afternoon, NHC outlined the steps it would take to implement the recommendations.
"The Auditor General's findings and recommendations validate our plans to improve how NHC provides equitable access to suitable public housing for families and individuals in Nunavut," NHC minister Lorne Kusugak said in the release.
NHC said it also plans to include its response to the recommendations in an official action plan to be released in the fall.