Uquutaq Society's Low Barrier Shelter expansion increases the size of a temporary shelter from 17 to 44 beds, while providing a year-round drop-in and warming centre.mcCallumSather
Hamilton-based architects mcCallumSather, Accutech Engineering Inc. of Winnipeg and Iqaluit’s N63 Consulting are collaborating with local partners on three major projects to fill housing gaps in Canada’s far north.
The projects in Iqaluit, Nunavut, led by the non-profit Uquutaq Society, address specific housing needs. The Butler Building provides transitional and affordable housing; the Low Barrier Shelter expansion increases the size of a temporary shelter from 17 to 44 beds, while providing a year-round drop-in and warming centre; and the ATCO Loop mixed-use development creates a 48-unit apartment building on three lots in Iqaluit’s downtown core currently occupied by mostly derelict homes.
“The housing situation in Nunavut is worse than anywhere else in Canada,” says Laurel McCorriston, executive director, Uquutaq Society. “The CMHC defines core housing need as if 30 per cent or more of your income goes to housing costs; the average across the country is 14 per cent, while the average in Nunavut is 35 per cent.”
The government of Nunavut’s 2020’s Hidden Homelessness Survey shows how homelessness in the Arctic takes many unseen forms, such as couch surfing, overcrowded homes and those sleeping in places that are not meant to be slept in. Unfortunately, housing insecurity in the north is part of everyday life.
The non-profit Uquutaq Society was founded in 2009 to address the Arctic homelessness crisis one building and one solution at a time by working with the local government to invest in much-needed infrastructure and create more temporary shelters and more affordable housing.
The Butler Building provides 30 units of transitional housing and 11 affordable housing units.mcCallumSather
Their first initiative was to take over running the Salvation Army’s men’s shelter, located on the first floor of 1077 Akilliq Dr. The converted four-bedroom house was the city’s only operating homeless men’s shelter and was nearing the end of its life cycle. Collaborating with the Iqaluit government, Uquutaq spearheaded the construction of two new buildings to offer additional beds.
Critical housing shortages can be seen in other northern communities. According to a recent report, published by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association and the Northern Ontario Service Deliverers Association, an estimated 85,000 people in the province were without a home in 2025. The Far North is one of the hardest hit regions. From 2024 to 2025, known homelessness in Northern Ontario increased by 37.3 per cent, and since 2021, homelessness in the region increased by approximately 117.5 per cent, compared to 49.1 per cent provincially over the same period.
“What we’re trying to do with all of our designs is to understand the needs of each of those stages along that housing continuum and then deliver solutions and architectural responses that are appropriate and adequate for each user that aren’t stigmatized,” says Matthew Bolen, a director of mcCallumSather, and one of the lead architects on the Uquutaq Society projects.
Located in Lower Iqaluit, the Butler Building is a prefab building originally brought to the Arctic capital by the United States Air Force in the 1950s. For the past two decades, the city-owned facility was primarily used for storage. In 2022, Uquutaq Society won a contract from the City of Iqaluit to convert the site into a single-occupancy, 32-room affordable housing unit with a commercial kitchen and a drop-in centre on the first floor. To help fund the Butler Building, the non-profit received $2.7-million from the Nunavut government and $10-million from National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Inc.
Ms. McCorriston recalls that when he arrived in Iqaluit in 2019 the homeless shelter was “a tiny, rundown three-bedroom house. And I mean run down, like mould in the ceilings and leaking, with 80 people using it at its max, sleeping in the hallways. … It was obviously in need of an expansion.”
The Butler Building now provides 30 units of transitional housing and 11 affordable housing units.
A four-storey modular building, the ATCO Loop mixed-use development, is in the design phase with mcCallumSather.mcCallumSather
The Low Barrier Shelter expansion is located on the site of a former butcher shop. Uquutaq Society’s new three-storey 44-bed, low-barrier shelter replaces an existing 17-bed shelter. It is expected to open this year. When deciding on a name for this new building, Uquutaq and architects mcCallumSather sought guidance from the Iqaluit Elders, who christened it Ullivik, translated as a place to wait for high tide.
“The name they chose is just so beautiful,” says Ms. McCorriston. “You’re out hunting or fishing, and you cannot get to where you need to go … you don’t have what you need. The idea that evokes, to me, is not just the beauty of Nunavut in the land and the water, but the idea that we’re meeting the people we are working with where they are. They’re in that place, waiting for high tide. And what can we do for them? How can we support them? And how do we listen to them, so that when high tide comes, we are ready?”
Ullivik’s design features an atrium and skylights, bringing in natural light to help lift up Iqaluit’s most vulnerable, who will seek shelter in this building. Instead of an elevator to move people up from the main floor, the designers created a long, central ramp.
“[The ramp] allows people to move through the building in a more transparent and open way,” explains Mr. Bolen. “It also creates moments of pause along the pathway that can help foster community and engagement between visitors, residents and staff.”
The ATCO Loop mixed-use development creates a 48-unit apartment building on three lots in Iqaluit’s downtown core.mcCallumSather
Uquutaq Society was the sole bidder on redeveloping a three-lot site in downtown Iqaluit currently occupied by boarded-up, derelict homes. “We’re so excited about this project,” says Ms. McCorriston. “Our housing development committee has been waiting since 2021 for this site to become available.”
A four-storey modular building, the ATCO Loop mixed-use development, is in the design phase with mcCallumSather. The site is zoned for commercial use at the street level, so the plan is to lease that flexible space to a local non-profit and build three residential floors above. There will be 40 to 45 affordable one-, two- and three-bedroom units, and a common area. To help fund this project, a capital fundraising campaign is scheduled to begin shortly, led by Partners For Affordable Housing, a new organization comprising public, private, philanthropic and non-profit groups to support community-led housing projects.
“Uquutaq Society has been recognized a couple of times by the Nunavut legislature for the work it’s doing for Inui, in the community, which was really the highlight for me,” Ms. McCorriston says. “I thought I could retire, but watching these projects become a reality is like a lifetime achievement award.”