National report lauds two northern housing projects

Housing programs in Yukon and Nunavut are included in a national report highlighting local solutions to creating decent housing in northern communities.

The Conference Board of Canadas report Framing Sustainable Options for Housing in Canadas North points to four case studies of communities facing the challenge of providing adequate housing given the high costs of building, operating and maintaining housing in the North.

One of the projects cited is the collaboration between Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Yukon Housing Corporation, Han Construction Limited, and the Trondk Hwchin First Nation.

The Conference Board says unlike many in northern communities, the Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation has designed affordable, energy efficient homes that are flexible enough to meet local needs.

Builder John Mitchell was a manager on the project.

"It doesn't change my paycheque, but it you know it's a nice feeling to know we did something; we've created housing," he said. "That's the purpose of it is to give people a good, comfortable, safe and healthy place to live."

Mitchell said the locally designed homes are meant to accommodate changes over a tenant's lifetime. They're pre-built which makes it easy to put on additions and convert rooms for other uses.

He said they may not reflect the romance of the Klondike, but they're comfy.

"We've traded off the romance of the cabin there to build a better house,"Mitchell said. "The way I look at it, the whole basis of a healthy community is your housing because if you don't have people in comfortable, healthy housing, then it detracts from them doing their jobs in the rest of the world."

Chief Eddie Taylor said part of the reason for the program's success is that the First Nation earns $750,000 yearly in rent. Other communities have had trouble collecting rents.

"We have a housing program that people are fully aware of and been living with for 20-plus years," he said. "When evictions occur, they're never a favourite part of housing, but they do occur."

Taylor said construction of new homes has slowed because the CanadaMortgage and Housing Corporation is no longer guaranteeing loans for the First Nation.

A second initiative praised in the report was the Nunavut Housing Corporations partnership with Kott North to design 142 energy-efficient public housing units for 19 communities.

The housing corp received $100 million in funding from the Canadian Economic Action Plan in 2009 for the renovation and construction of new social housing units. An Ottawa firm designed units with an exterior shell of insulated panels that could be shipped ready-to-assemble and erected in seven to 10 days.

The other examples cited were the partnership between The Holmes Group, Assembly of First Nations, and the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek near Sudbury to deliver quality sustainable housing options on reserves, and the effort by the Northern Teacher Education Program in La Ronge, Sask., to build non-profit student housing.