08-05-2025
Uquutaq Society's low-barrier shelter expansion slated to open in Iqaluit in July 2026
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A project to create more space for the unhoused of Iqaluit is set to open in July 2026.
Uquutaq Society's new low-barrier shelter, where clients don't need to be sober, will have three floors with 44 beds of emergency shelter, 13 transitional housing rooms, a warming centre, as well as a kitchen and dining room to feed clients.
With construction underway, the non-profit's interim executive director Laurel McCorriston says it's amazing to see the project come together.
"It's quite shocking to have it live in your imagination all this time and then to see it start to materialize," McCorriston said.
"I get goosebumps every time I go and see it."
The building is going up by the QuickStop and KFC and the exterior is set to be complete by the time the snow flies, with work continuing on the interior next summer.
The Uquutaq Society's current low-barrier shelter near the hospital offers 17 cots and programming from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., as opposed to the 24-hour service Uquutaq will offer at the new building.
The current shelter is owned by the Nunavut government and McCorriston said it's slated for demolition.
The project has been a long time in the making, since an expansion fell through in 2021 after the organization did not get enough funding from the territory. McCorriston says that as the city grows, the need for services in the capital is also growing.
"As people come in from smaller communities, they're looking for work, they're looking for housing, they're joining family. They come here for medical, they don't go back; they're discharged from the justice system and they stay here," she said.
"And so between the growth of the people who live here now, and immigration into Iqaluit, there's just going to be more and more need for this kind of service."
The need is already significant, she said, with the current shelter turning away about 50 people a month.
McCorriston says talking to people on the street in Iqaluit, she's hearing the city's homeless population say they're excited for the new shelter too.
