Housing & Land

The Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) is a federal initiative designed to help municipalities remove barriers to housing development and create the conditions needed to get more homes built.

In Nunavut, NAM is working with 16 participating municipalities to help municipalities participate in the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) and strengthen their ability to prepare for future housing development.

Recognizing that many municipalities did not have the staff capacity or specialized planning resources required to undertake the work on their own, NAM developed a collective approach. NAM managed the HAF project on behalf of 16 Nunavut communities, preparing proposals, coordinating project requirements, retaining and managing professional consultants, and supporting communities in meeting their funding obligations and milestones.

The project supported municipalities in completing planning and housing-readiness work, including examining land availability, development processes, municipal planning, gravel supplies, capacity and other barriers that can affect the construction of new housing.

Importantly, completing this work also helped participating communities access additional HAF funding that could be directed toward other eligible infrastructure and initiatives supporting housing development. NAM's collective project management approach therefore helped communities not only complete required planning work, granular plans and capacity planning, but also maximize the broader funding opportunities available to them through HAF.

An important part of the project was building local municipal capacity and readiness. Increasing housing supply requires more than funding to construct homes. Communities also need suitable land, infrastructure, municipal services, effective planning and development processes, and the administrative capacity to support growth.

Through the HAF Project, NAM helped connect these pieces and provided participating municipalities with professional support that would have been difficult for many communities to access individually.

The lessons and tools developed through HAF continue to support NAM's broader work on housing readiness, community planning and the Staff Housing Collective, helping municipalities move from identifying housing needs toward being ready for housing investment and development.

By working collectively, NAM is helping smaller municipalities access specialized expertise, address local barriers to development and build municipal capacity to support housing growth over the longer term.

Land for Homes is a partnership working to address one of the major barriers to building more housing in Nunavut: ensuring communities have suitable, build-ready land available when new housing is needed.

NAM, Nunavut Housing Corporation and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated are working together to improve access to the information, data and tools needed to plan, prepare and select land for housing. The initiative helps identify land and infrastructure gaps and provides practical resources to support better land planning and decision-making.

By strengthening coordination between municipalities, Inuit organizations, government and housing partners, Land for Homes is helping communities plan ahead and ensure that a lack of suitable land does not become a barrier to getting much-needed homes built.

Access to suitable staff housing can have a direct impact on a municipality's ability to recruit and retain the employees it needs to deliver essential community services.

The Hamlet Staff Housing Initiative is examining the availability and condition of municipal staff housing across Nunavut and identifying where the most significant gaps exist. By bringing together information from communities, NAM is helping develop a clearer territory-wide picture of current and future staff housing needs.

The gap analysis will provide evidence that can be used to identify priorities, explore potential solutions and support discussions with governments and other partners about the investment needed to address municipal staff housing shortages.

The Northern Infrastructure Standardization Initiative (NISI) develops standards and guidance specifically for designing, building, managing and maintaining infrastructure in Canada's North.

Northern communities face conditions that are not always adequately addressed by standards developed for southern Canada. Permafrost, changing snow loads, drainage, erosion, extreme weather and other northern conditions can have significant impacts on buildings and community infrastructure.

NISI brings northern knowledge and experience into the development of practical standards that respond to these realities. NAM supports the involvement of Nunavut municipalities in this work, helping ensure that community infrastructure needs and experiences are reflected and that useful northern standards and resources are connected back to communities.