Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm Raigili Amaaq, chairperson for Igloolik Housing Association. Currently we have 284 public housing units, including the new constructions and leased units. We recently allocated 20 new units. We have a population of 2,014.
I will speak about the community. When colonialism started by the federal government, they picked up families from their camps, brought them to Igloolik with next to nothing with them, and placed them in matchboxes and promised them two dollars a month. Today, families of these people are overcrowded, our grandchildren being some of them. Having lost his father to a sudden death, our grandson is grieving alone at our house without the love and support of his mother, because the other grandparents' house is also overcrowded.
Residential school had a great impact and is still alive and well with the shortage of housing and the mental health and well-being of the families.
If we were to be given funding for housing, I would ask for one bedrooms, also to respect the single people or couples that have no children and are not planning to have children. They couch surf trying to find that kind person who has a couch for them to sleep on.
Although there are 183 people on the waiting list, some still do not bother to apply, because it's next to impossible. Some people end up living with a parent or parents, cousins or siblings until the parent passes away and they can finally have the unit.
Is this only in Nunavut? Why should we still be living like this in 2022? We are in a crisis. We need housing. This is our reality in Igloolik.
Some families are still living in some units that were built in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Some were renovated, but there are still some of the very oldest units there, because there is no other housing available.
The homeowners are also overcrowded due to the lack of housing available. The cost of food is very expensive, and some public housing units house up to 16 to 20 in some families.
I think that's about it. Thank you.