Renatus Semigak is happy that the children can play outside here again. (Submitted by Renatus Semigak)

It has been seven long months without a home for Renatus Semigak and her family. From hotels to social housing to more hotels, it has been more moving and unsafe than anyone would ever hope for.

This week they finally have a place to call home.

“A phone call saying we have a seat really got me upset,” she told CBC News. “Today I’m just glad that we can move in soon and have our own place to call home and settle down and be a family, a real family.”

Since October, Semigak and her three children – all under 10 and expecting a fourth – have been moving between hotels in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, looking for a place to call home. They had lived with their partner’s family but left because there wasn’t enough space for everyone.

They jumped from hotel to hotel for the next several months. She says she had to pull her oldest child out of grade 4.

“Moving from hotel to hotel [is not] Stall for him to go to school. “

It wasn’t just their oldest child who was affected by all the moves. Semigak says her children don’t have the same freedoms that they would have in their own home.

“There are just so many vehicles in hotels that they can’t play outside. Not like when we’re moving around in our own place, I know they can play outside.”

Renatus Semigak stands in front of Emma’s Suites, one of three hotels she and her family have stayed at since October. (Regan Burden / CBC)

The lack of available public housing isn’t the only factor that has deterred families from moving to a place of their own. Semigak says she browsed Facebook, contacted private landlords, and looked everywhere for a rental property, but the rent is “very, very high”.

Semigak, whose only income is child welfare and tax credit, says she can’t afford the region’s $ 1,500-2,000 monthly rents. She says that the cost of staying at the hotels was paid for by the Innu Round Table Secretariat, a collective organization that includes the Innu Nation, Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation, and Mushua Innu First Nation that provide income support, prevention services, The judiciary and police work together.

Now even though she and her family have been assigned to a house with Newfoundland and Labrador Housing and will be moving in on Tuesday.

But Semigak and her family weren’t the only ones on a waiting list for Newfoundland and Labrador Housing. John Abbott, the company’s minister, says demand is exceeding housing supply across the province. However, Labrador has a growing population of young families, Abbott said, and there are nearly 100 people on the waiting list.

New provincial housing plan

Abbott says the province plans in a new three-year housing action plan to provide rent supplements and use the private market to expand access to housing. It’s not that easy to move someone into an empty house, he said; These homes need repairs, and a short Labrador construction season can cause delays in preparing space for a new family.

“We want to be very careful that people who enter these units to live as families are safe and meet the standards we would expect any of us in the community,” said Abbott.

Abbot says the goal is to reach a time when waiting lists don’t exist.

“We are going through cycles and the cycle we are in right now. Demand is exceeding supply and we are working hard to increase that supply as quickly as possible,” he said.

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