A year ago, no one was talking about the Homeownership Assistance Program until a Nunatsiaq News reporter pulled it from the dustbin of history, brushed off the cobwebs and gave everyone a fresh look at it.
Now, the Nunavut Homeownership Assistance Program is going to give Nunavummiut the chance to own their own house with $250,000 in government funding along with some do-it-yourself labour.
The Government of Nunavut calls it a “modernized” version of the HAP program that existed from 1983 to 1992.
That program gave people a shipment of free building materials from the Northwest Territories government and blueprints plucked from a catalogue. Using their own “sweat equity,” people would build the homes themselves.