For the past two decades, Karen Nanook has shared a bedroom with her adult daughter inside Nanook’s elderly parents’ home in Taloyoak, Nunavut.
When you include Nanook’s brother, that’s five people living in a three-bedroom home that she said is covered in mould.
“It’s like living in a tiny box,” she said. “Our mattresses are almost touching and there’s no privacy in the home.”
All that time, Nanook has been on the public housing waitlist, but she said she has never gone further than third on the list in her community.
The inability to secure housing has taken a toll on her family’s mental health. Recently, she said she gave up trying to keep her application up to date.
“What’s the use in trying when nothing’s being changed,” she said.
Nunavut woman learns lead device was in her water tank for ‘over 20 years’
Nanook is one of roughly 120 people on the waitlist for public housing in Taloyoak, according to figures from Cecile Nelvana Lyall, the community’s MLA and the minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation (NHC). The community of roughly 1,000 people has just over 200 public housing units.
NHC funds and oversees local housing organizations, which manage over 6,000 public housing units across Nunavut. Lyall said they’re dealing with a waitlist across the territory of just over 3,700 people.
“I think there’s nowhere else in Canada where you would see that a majority of the housing stock is public housing or social housing,” she said.
The average amount of time applicants spend on a public housing waitlist in Nunavut was 4.5 years, according to a report by the auditor general of Canada released in 2025.
CBC News has seen several letters from health professionals supporting Nanook’s need for housing – but she said nothing has ever come out of those.
The Taloyoak Housing Authority has not responded to requests for comment by deadline.
In 2023, the federal housing advocate Marie-Josee Houle said the lack of habitable housing has threatened the health of Nunavummiut and the right to live in dignity. The human right to adequate housing is enshrined in Canadian law.
Federal advocate calls Inuit housing conditions a ‘staggering failure’ of government
Lyall blames the lack of housing on a growing population and years of underinvestment by previous governments. In the past, she said there have been some years with no new houses built in Taloyoak.
“We are still seeing that population growth, so it’s been a continuous game of catch up,” she said.
Nunavut’s local housing organizations use a points-based system to allocate housing — meaning the applicants with the greatest need get more points and receive priority. Points are supposed to be allocated based on financial need, how many bedrooms a family needs, and how bad the conditions are where the applicant is currently living.
But the auditor general of Canada found the housing corporation did not know whether publicly-funded units were being allocated to applicants who needed them the most, and guidelines weren’t being followed in some communities.
Nunavut Housing Corp. not providing residents with fair access to public housing: Audit
Currently, Lyall said there is no easy way to track housing applications — including from those who are precariously housed or living away from their home communities — but a new online portal called IgluWeb set to launch by the end of this year could change that.
Nunavut Housing Corporation officially signs agreement with Build Canada Homes
“We’ve been working closely with each of the local housing organizations on how we can have more of that standardized view of what the point rating system may look like, while also having those allowances for the organizations to have some independence within that,” she said.
In 2022, the Nunavut government launched its “Nunavut 3,000” strategy to address the territory’s longstanding housing crisis. It aims to build 3,000 homes by 2030.
For its part, NHC is responsible for building about 1,400 of those homes.
NHC’s 2025 progress report stated there were 352 units under construction, and 313 units completed since 2021, though that was before the launch of the strategy.
In Taloyoak, there are 20 units currently being built, but Lyall said there are some unanticipated delays with acquiring materials for the building foundations.
Modular home factory in Arviat, Nunavut, to be complete by spring
In addition, Lyall said four modular units are set to arrive by sealift in the coming weeks.
She remains hopeful continued partnerships with other levels of government and Inuit organizations — like the soon-to-be-established Igluvut Corporation — can help break down the barriers to construction.
Nanook wonders if that’s enough to help her or her daughter.
“She has so much potential in her future. I want what’s best for my child.”
Aside from housing, Nanook is also struggling to make ends meet as she searches for a permanent job.
Further compounding that issue is the delay in getting income assistance when the workers aren’t in the office.
That leaves her and other residents without the necessary funds to feed their families.
In a statement to CBC News, the Department of Family Services said it experienced intermittent office closures due to illness and bereavement leave earlier this year.
It said regional staff provided remote assistance, and the department is actively recruiting another employee.
Nanook hopes officials will take her concerns seriously because people’s livelihoods are at stake.
“There’s too many in the home and there’s too many mouths to feed in the home,” she said. “It has been difficult.”
