‘People just can’t afford to fix their homes’: Calls for help with the housing crisis in Canada’s Arctic

Residents in Northwest Territories are struggling with homelessness as public housing units fall to disrepair. Heather Wright reports.

BEHCHOKO, NWT - Terri Douglas leans down and opens the door to the stove oven and pokes the fire that’s burning inside. She estimates she’s gone through two-and-a-half cords of wood so far this year, which is roughly 2000 pieces. And January isn’t even over.

“We don’t have a furnace,” Douglas says. “That’s how our house is heated. Eventually your feet are going to get cold.”

Douglas lives in Behchoko, an Indigenous community about an hour drive from Yellowknife. A retired school teacher, she and her husband have lived here for 40 years and like many homes in the area, theirs is in need of repair.

“The mold is inside the walls so you can see it up there,” she says, pointing to the ceiling in the bathroom. There is also a broken window and the foundation on one side is sinking, so everything tilts a little to the right.

There are programs available for people like Douglas, who own their homes and need help with the costs of repairs. Arctic winters are harsh, and Douglas says they can’t afford the work that’s needed.

“Even if they just did a roof that’s $25,000, plus our foundation, because it’s sinking. Our windows can’t be replaced because they’re not up to standard,” Douglas says.

So, like many here, Douglas and her family make do.

“All you need to do is drive around town and you can see,” she says about the state of some of the homes here. “You can listen to what people are saying and drive around and see how many houses are boarded up.”

CTV News spoke to more than a dozen people in Behchoko, some who have been homeless for months and others who have been waiting years for basic repairs to their public housing units.

One woman says she lives in public housing and pays $1,500 a month in rent but has to keep her belongings in bins because her walls are infested with worms.

However, because the list of those waiting for homes is so long, few people wanted to speak on the record for fear that complaining would get their requests pushed further down the already long list.

“We are in desperate need of new housing in Behchokò,” says Chief Bertha Rabesca Zoe. “We haven’t had any real new houses in over 30 years.”

Chief Rabesca Zoe says her community is not alone in this housing crisis, which has been called urgent and widespread across all three territories.

In Behchoko, the situation is acute: according to the Northwest Territories Bureau of Statistics, 36 per cent of homes in Behchoko are not considered adequate for living. Another 26 per cent are considered not suitable for living. It’s the highest across the entire territory.

“There is overcrowding, bedbug infestations,” Rabesca Zoe says. “Housing is very important for health, security and education. It impacts everything.”

The federal government has promised $1 billion dollars over four years for Arctic infrastructure, which includes projects like deep water ports, air strips and all-season roads. Rabesca Zoe wants to see some of that money earmarked for indigenous communities like hers, to help alleviate the housing crisis.

“We are going to be in a desperate situation in terms of the housing crunch and the high unemployment rate we already have,” she says. “People just can’t afford to fix their homes. They can’t.”

And without adequate housing there is concern that more people will leave communities like Behchoko in search of more affordable housing and job opportunities. Both Yukon and the Northwest Territories have seen their populations decline in recent years.

“Jobs are very limited in our communities and there’s a shortage of housing,” Rabesca Zoe says. “If we want to rebuild the government needs to be there with us in partnership.”