New report highlights housing deficits across the NWT

The Northwest Territories has a housing deficit of between 1,750 and 2,700 units, a new report from the territorial government has found.

The report projects another 771 to 1,030 homes will need to be built over the next two decades to accommodate population growth.

The Territorial Housing Needs Assessment report – touted as the most comprehensive territory-wide housing study since 2000 – is expected to inform future housing policy, programs and advocacy.

The report does not, however, outline any actions to be taken to tackle the housing crisis across the territory.

“This report marks a starting point for a brighter future, and will serve as a foundation for collaborative action, evidence-based planning and advocacy for increasing housing investments across the Northwest Territories,” said housing minister Lucy Kuptana.

“This effort has gathered the essential data to support federal funding requests that will help all NWT communities and make a compelling case to receive the necessary support to actively address housing challenges throughout the territory.”

The report, Kuptana said, could support the territory in making submissions to federal programs like Build Canada Homes.

“Over the past several years, the federal government has really been encouraging the use of housing needs assessments to provide an evidence base for housing investments, and they’ve increasingly connected them to funding programs,” said Chris Van Dyke, Housing NWT’s manager of community housing planning.

He said this report could also be used as a baseline with which to compare future progress.

The study used data on populations, affordability and housing conditions from the 2021 census and the NWT Bureau of Statistics’ 2024 community survey, in addition to discussions with community leaders, Indigenous governments and residents.

In total, consultations took place with 20 of the NWT’s 33 communities. Obstacles such as wildfires, elections and deaths in some communities made consultation impossible during the timeframe of the project, Van Dyke said.

The report focused on communities outside Yellowknife, since the city conducted its own housing needs assessment in 2024.

The report found that housing inadequacy – which refers to the need for major repairs – was the most common issue, affecting 18 percent of households in 2024.

The issue is most prevalent in the Beaufort Delta, where about 400 households reported living in inadequate homes that year.

There are also a disproportionate number of Indigenous people in core housing need.

That’s defined as being part of a household with at least one issue related to adequacy, suitability or affordability, and where the household would have to spend more than 30 percent of its income to access alternative housing that didn’t have any of those issues.

While about half of the households in the territory are Indigenous, those households made up about 71 percent of all households in core housing need in 2021, the report found.

In all areas except the Yellowknife and South Slave regions, Indigenous households represented more than 90 percent of the households in core housing need.

The report also found increased demand for housing that meets the needs of an older population, as that demographic shows significant growth.

Between 2005 and 2025, the population of those aged 60 and older jumped from representing 7.1 percent of the territory’s population to 17.5 percent. (Over the same period, the number of people aged 24 and under dropped from 40 percent of the population to 31 percent.)

The need for seniors’ housing was noted as being particularly urgent in Hay River – despite the presence of two existing complexes – since those 60 and older now represent 23 percent of the town’s population.

In conversations with community leadership, the report’s authors heard about the growing visibility of homelessness in larger communities and about the hidden homelessness present in other communities that is difficult to quantify.

In Sachs Harbour, for example, it was noted that some residents were staying in makeshift shelters.

The report noted that Housing NWT is currently working with a contractor to conduct a count of those experiencing homelessness in communities outside Yellowknife. (A homelessness count for the city took place in 2024.)

Transitional housing, which offers a path out of homeless, was described by the report as needed across the territory, especially in regional centres.

Aastha Sethi contributed reporting.