4 days ago
Plan to build 3,000 homes in Nunavut still a success even if it falls short, housing corp. presidents says
Nunavut's premier and housing corporation president are defending the government's record on public housing following the release of a new Auditor General's report, which said Nunavummiut aren't being provided fair access.
The report also stated there has been a lack of communication and misinformation about the targets outlined in the Nunavut 3,000 strategy — which aims to build 3,000 new homes by 2030.
"We've been open and transparent in terms of showcasing what levels — they're all in different stages in terms of the construction phases," Premier P.J. Akeeagok said in the Nunavut Legislative Assembly this week.
Nunavut Housing Corporation president and CEO Eiryn Devereaux said even if that target of 3,000 homes missed, the strategy will still be a success.
"If we had kept doing everything the same, building a hundred units a year over nine years, we would have seen 1,000 units come into the territory," Devereaux said. "So we're talking about doubling and trying to triple the supply of much-needed housing."
Devereaux said the 3,000 figure relates to units under construction since 2021, not since the launch of the strategy in 2022.
"The 3,000 was always a target and it was always a target to drive change, drive the system, to say we have to do better, we have to do things differently because the status quo is just not working," he said.
Devereaux said there are currently 440 units at "various stages of construction."
"What's more important than people counting the numbers? It's the transformative change," he said.
The Nunavut Housing Corporation accepted all of the report's 10 recommendations.
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 also found the housing corporation did not know whether publicly funded units were being allocated to applicants who needed them the most.
Devereaux said they have a new maintenance management software system for local housing authorities, which should start rolling out later this year.
"That'll help to centralize and to get data across all (local housing authorities) instead of them sort of doing it on their own in-house," he said.
He said the housing corporation also plans to launch a new tenant relations and portfolio management system to take that burden off housing authorities too.
