Enook disputes trying to use position to get social housing

[3rd place, Best Feature Writing - Ontario Community Newspapers Association]
Northern News Services
Published Saturday, November 12, 2011

When Tununiq MLA Joe Enook made a campaign promise to move to Pond Inlet, he expected several private housing units to open as workers finished construction projects this fall.

They didn't.

Today, Enook and his wife Mary Kilabuk are staying in a shack, and having exhausted all other options, he has applied for social housing.

"I am homeless in Nunavut right now," he said, noting they gave up their home in Iqaluit to make the move to Pond Inlet Nov. 3. Now, they have no running water. Thin walls and a Coleman stove are their only defence against the elements.

"It's a little damp and a little cold, but that's what we have and we appreciate what's been given to us," he said.

Enook told News/North in September that he would find a house, one way or another, because his constituents want their MLA to live in Pond Inlet. He says he has tried every private housing option to no avail. There is simply nothing available, he said.

"I tried everything I could in my power to go through the private sector," he said this week. "I approached everybody in the business of renting houses, and at the end of it all, I had no choice to go through the normal route of applying for social housing."

It was a controversial move. As an MLA, he doesn't qualify for government staff housing, and with MLA earnings above the limit for social housing, he shouldn't qualify for that either.

With his base salary, Northern and housing allowances, and additional pay for serving on committees -- he is deputy chair of the committee of the whole -- Enook easily passes the income threshold. His predecessor in Tununiq, James Arvaluk, made $121,470 in 2010. The lowest earning MLA, Adamie Komoartok of Pangnirtung, earned $109,474.

In addition, social housing applicants must have lived in the community for at least three months. Enook and Kilabuk moved to Pond Inlet Nov. 3. Still, he disputes suggestions that he has tried to use his position to jump to the top of the social housing waiting list in Pond Inlet.

"I've never demanded housing," he insisted. "The housing association has a house they want to give to me. The Pond Inlet hamlet council has written to the housing association strongly recommending that I be given the house. They've gone on the radio to see how Mittimatalingmiut feel, and 90 per cent of all callers apparently said, 'give him a house.'"

He said there are vacant government staff housing units that are not being filled because the staff who should be living in them are living in social housing instead; their staff housing subsidy simply does not make it financially attractive to move.

"While I live in a shack, several GN staff houses are sitting empty and have been for several years," he said. "They're costing the government thousands of dollars in maintenance and heating and fuel bills unused. There must be a way of figuring out how to utilize those units to alleviate the problems of social housing. Nobody seems to be co-ordinating a common front to face the problem."

Enook and Kilabuk plan to stay in their shack if no solution arises before they return to Iqaluit for legislative committee meetings Nov. 21. Staying at a hotel is an option, but a costly one: although rooms had been full with a conference earlier in the month, a front desk clerk at Pond Inlet's Sauniq Hotel said the rate is $235 per person, per night, which would translate to $5,170 (discounts notwithstanding) from Nov. 10, when News/North spoke with Enook, to Nov. 21. At that rate, it would cost $14,100 to stay at the hotel for 30 days.

Citing high rents in the capital and his promise to serve his constituency as a resident, Enook ruled out moving back to Iqaluit. He reiterated his confidence that something permanent will come up in Pond Inlet soon.

"A private home will become available, it's just a matter of when it will be vacated," he said.

"Things will work out. The shack's not winterized, but my wife and I pray every night that it doesn't go to -30, and, knock on wood, it hasn't yet. It's been very tough on both of us, but we've tried to keep a smile on our face and appreciate the people of Pond Inlet who have been kind to us since we've been here."

And for Enook the legislator, there is a silver lining to the situation.

"It has people talking about social housing in a real way. Maybe at the end of it all, it will do something good for Nunavummiut to have had this frank conversation about this issue."