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The severe lack of affordable housing in Northern Canada has left the Rev. Jonas Allooloo unable to find a home two years after his retirement as dean of St. Jude's Cathedral in Iqaluit. Photo: Contributed

 

In December 2020, the Anglican Journal published “No room in the inn.” This article detailed how the Rev. Jonas Allooloo—former dean of St. Jude’s Cathedral in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and a key translator of the first Bible in Inuktitut—was effectively homeless two years after his retirement in January 2019.

The housing crisis in the North, which includes low vacancy rates and some of the highest rent prices in Canada, had left Jonas and his wife Meena unable to find affordable housing. At the time of writing in mid-October, the Allooloos had moved in with their daughter, a cook who lives in staff housing.

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Have you learned anything from this experience of being homeless during retirement?

Income is very scarce in the church in the Arctic, because of the high prices. [Costs of] living are very high here in the North. A lot of people from this area have moved down south because of very [high] expenses. I heard on the news that Iqaluit has the highest shortage of housing, and they’re very expensive houses. Some houses can sell for up to $1 million.

The homes that are allotted are for people who are coming in from the south. We, the Inuit, are set aside as second-class citizens. We have a lot of multicultural people here in our city, and we have lots of Filipinos and people of colour. For the whites, they’re given the first choice of homes, and Inuit come third in the society.

We are beginning to be like a minority, Inuit, in our own place. That’s how we feel. They give choices to the people who are coming in from the south to find jobs. Lots of Filipinos come here for jobs because there is no employment in their own country. The haves and have-nots are real here.

Do you ever speak to retired Anglican clergy in southern Canada about your respective living situations?

Not really, no. Even our bishop [David Parsons] has said that he cannot retire in the North because he cannot find a place. He has to move down south again when he retires. So many of our people from Iqaluit—Inuit—have moved to Ottawa, because they can afford housing down there.

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Read Matt Gardner's article at anglicanjournal.com