TUESDAY,FEBRUARY18,2020 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O NEWS | A 9
because of Nain’s remote location, it’ll be
a very long time before they can begin to
address demand. A short building season
and thawing permafrost only compounds
the problem.
“They’ll build four homes and get 60
applicants. It’s that bad,” Ms. Ittulak said.
At the same time, abandoned homes
are scattered throughout the community,
sometimes taken over by homeless peo-
ple with nowhere else to go. Social-hous-
ing agencies are trying to use those prop-
erties to build new housing, but many be-
long to deceased residents who didn’t
leave legal wills behind – which compli-
cates their purchase, Ms. Ittulak said.
The Torngat Regional Housing Associ-
ation, which provides subsidized rents,
says it doesn’t have nearly enough fund-
ing to meet the need for homes across
Nunatsiavut, a self-governing Indigenous
region. In Nain alone, there are nearly 50
families who need housing, Mr. Dicker
said.
The provincialgovernment remains re-
sponsible for social housing in Labrador,
but Nunatsiavut – which signed a land-
claim agreement in 2005 – has been slow-
ly trying to take control of its housing
needs and improve people’s living condi-
tions.
With the help of federal funding, it’s
creating a new housing commission to
deal with the problem, but it will be years
before it can get on top of the shortage.
Several multiunit apartment buildings
have been built by the Nunatsiavut gov-
ernment, but they’re not coming nearly
fast enough, Ms. Andersen said. Priority is
given to families, so single men such as
Mr. Ikkusek are low on the list. With no
homeless shelters, they’re left to fend for
themselves.
Fears of another tuberculosis outbreak,
meanwhile, still lurk throughout the com-
munity. Most here knew Gussie Bennett,
the 14-year-old boy who died in 2018 from
TB. Planeloads of people were sent to
Goose Bay after the outbreak, which last-
ed for months and involved more than 50
confirmed cases. Medical authorities as-
sure residents the disease is now under
control – while warning them to be on the
alert for any symptoms, which can appear
to be a regular cold or flu at first.
Tuberculosis – caused by bacteria
spread through the air – and poor housing
have always been linked in northern La-
brador. In a place where it’s not uncom-
mon to have a dozen people or more liv-
ing in a small, two bedroom home, over-
crowding and poor ventilation continues
to cause health issues.
“Tuberculosis is spread by people being
together in unhealthy situations. We still
have those problems,” Mr. Dicker said. “TB
has always been here, but it’s just waiting
for a situation that allows it to become
active again.”
The Nunatsiavut, provincial and federal
governments are trying to stop the cycle
of tuberculosis outbreaks in Labrador’s re-
mote communities.
Ottawa has vowed to eliminate the dis-
ease by 2030, setting aside $27.5-million
over five years for disease prevention,
screening, diagnosis and treatment in
Canada’s North.
It’s too early to say how effective that
campaign has been so far, but officials say
90 per cent of Nain’s residents have now
been screened for TB, a small sign of pro-
gress. TB, however, remains a serious chal-
lenge across Canada’s North, where the
disease rate among Inuit is 290-times
higher than for non-Indigenous people.
The 2018 outbreak brought a lot of at-
tention and resources to Nain, including
TB clinics, an X-Ray machine and disease
specialists.
Doctors can now diagnose and screen
for tuberculosis in remote, fly-in commu-
nities much more quickly than in the past.
Money is also being spent on improving
nutrition and cutting down smoking rates
among Inuit, which also affects immune
systems’ ability to fight tuberculosis.
But without fixing the housing crisis,
tuberculosis has remained a stubborn
problem in the region for a very long time.
While patients can now be treated
without leaving their communities,except in extreme cases, there’s stilla
stigma around a TB diagnosis for many
older Inuit people. And that only compli-
cates things for officials trying to prevent
further outbreaks.
Many here remember the medical
boats the Canadiangovernment used to
send up the Labrador coast. A confirmed
TB diagnosis meant Inuit were sometimes
separated from their families for years,
while others died in sanitariums far re-
moved from their northern homes.
“They worried if they were diagnosed,
they would have to go down south for
treatment and may never be heard from
by their loved ones again,” said Tom
Wong, chief medical officer of public
health at Indigenous Services Canada. “To
this day, some elderly community mem-
bers have very painful memories when
they think about TB.”
Some Inuit are reluctant to seek med-
ical help if they show symptoms. While
disease rates have declined, regional
health officials caution TB may always be
a fact of life in northern Labrador.
“I think we’ve tried to address that stig-
ma, but we still have a long way to go,”
said Sylvia Doody, director of health ser-
vices for the Nunatsiavutgovernment.
“This isn’t going to happen overnight.
That’s why we need a sustainable ap-
proach to eliminate TB, which we’ve nev-
er really had in Labrador.”
They know that a medical response is
only part of the solution to beating tuber-
culosis in Labrador’s most remote com-
munities. The disease has as much to do
with social inequity among the Inuit, as
well as a failure of pastgovernment in-
terventions, as it does a lack of medical
resources in the region. As long as the
cramped, crowded conditions continue,
TB can be very difficult to contain.
“Elimination is possible, with improved
diagnosis, treatment and addressing the
root causes,” said Thomas Piggott, med-
ical officer of health for Labrador-Grenfell
Health. “We can get on top of this. Just
look at the progress we’ve made in the
rest of Canada, where roughly 50 to 8 0
years ago, rates of tuberculosis were basi-
cally what they are today in Labrador.”
The housing crisis in Nain that in-
flamed the tuberculosis outbreak remains
a daily concern for people here. Ms. An-
dersen and others say a temporary home-
less shelter is one of their most pressing
needs. That would ease some of the over-
crowding in Nain’s homes and reduce the
risk that TB can be spread.
In the middle of an outbreak, sleeping
alone in a truck can sometimes be safer
than being indoors. But for Mr. Ikkusek,a
warm place to sleep is all he wants. He’s
been homeless for three years, ever since
the house he was living in burned down.
He’s slept on couches, in trucks, in tents
and in whatever makeshift shelter he can
build ever since. Sometimes, Mr. Ikkusek
calls the police on himself, just to havea
safe place to sleep. And he’s getting worn
out.
“I just want a house over my head. I’m
tired of sleeping outside,” he said. “But
there’s no houses for people like me
here.”Left:Thecornerof
LabradorwhereNainis
situatedhasthehighest
rateoftuberculosisin
Canada–with248cases
forevery100,000people.Right:Volunteersfrom
thePentecostalchurch,
right,digagravefora
localmannexttothe
graveofGussieBennett,
a14-year-oldwhodied
fromTBin2018.AbeleIkkusek,below,
smokesinfrontofthe
broken-downtruckwhere
hesleeps,usinghislate
father’sparkatohelp
keepwarm.Hehas
beenhomelessfor
threeyears.Top:Mary(Binky)
Andersonreturnedto
Nainafteruniversityto
findtherewasnoplace
tolive.Lastsummer,
shemovedintoher
mother’sthree-bedroom
home,sharedby
people,beforeher
employersatthe
Nunatsiavutgovernment
madeahomeavailable
forher.Above:Public-service
posterswarningof
tuberculosisareposted
insidearadio-station
officeinthecommunity.