Housing conditions in Nunatsiavut a 'human rights failure,' says federal housing advocate

Canada's first federal housing advocate is calling the housing situation in Nunatsiavut — the autonomous Inuit region in Labrador — a human rights violation.

Marie-Josée Houle toured some Nunatsiavut communities, as well as towns in Nunavut, earlier this fall to get a first-hand glimpse of housing conditions for a report she's preparing for the federal government. 

"Housing in the North is a reflection of an ongoing human rights failure that really does need urgent attention," Houle said Thursday. 

"In Nunatsiavut the housing conditions were abominable. In some cases I still have nightmares. I worry very much personally about some people that we met who invited us into their homes."

Houle, who was appointed Canada's federal housing advocate in February, is overseeing the implementation of the right to adequate housing across the country, which was declared, by law, in 2019 under the National Housing Strategy Act. 

Saying she had never been to Canada's Inuit regions before, she called the experience eye-opening. 

"Part of my role is direct engagement with people where they live and of course the focus on people who need housing the most," Houle said.

"People need something now. People are dying. It is a question of life and death for a lot of people, and this is the part that haunts me the most and certainly pushes all of us working in these spaces to keep working on this as fast as we possibly can. But we also need to get it right."

Brenna Jarrar, the Nunatsiavut government's director of housing, took Houle on the tour of Nain, Hopedale and Happy Valley-Goose Bay in October. 

She said she agrees with Houle that the poor housing conditions are a human rights violation, adding it has been that way for decades and that Nunatsiavut is too often overlooked. 

"Beneficiaries of Nunatsiavut have known that they've been living in conditions that are a violation of their dignity and their rights since colonization, since settlement, especially since the 1950s when people were forcibly relocated," Jarrar said Tuesday.

"It's really important that we make people look. I think what Nunatsiavut, what people live with, that is what Canada is. I think it's very ugly, I think it's an open wound that kind of reminds people of the ugly side of Canada and that colonial history. It makes people uncomfortable, but that's why you have to look at that."

This year's federal budget promised an additional $11 billion over six years in spending to support Indigenous children, families and communities. That includes $4 billion for housing over seven years.

LISTEN | Labrador Morning's full interview with federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle:

Jarrar said racism is at the heart of the long-standing housing problem and why solutions are taking so long.

"The fact that we have to continue bringing people up here — this isn't the only federal dignitary that has come up and done a tour," she said.

"There's been some investments and some improvements but certainly, having to continuously remind people of the crisis, I think is also really degrading and demoralizing."

Houle said the funding is an important first step but current levels of federal investments are not going to be adequate.

She said she hopes to have her report completed by March but doesn't want to speak on behalf of Inuit communities.

"It's about self-determination. So it's certainly not appropriate that we speak for Inuit but we need to support and echo their voices and their priorities," said Houle. 

"This report that I will be writing and concluding hopefully by March will have recommendations that are supported by Inuit governments that are going to be implementable."

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador