Woman found sleeping outdoors near Iqaluit store highlights homelessness in Nunavut's capital 

Word that an elderly Iqaluit woman was found sleeping last week on the hard pavement outside the doors of Iqaluit’s Northmart store comes as no surprise to Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster, one of the Nunavut capital’s four MLAs.

Witnessing homelessness is inescapable around the city of about 8,000, Brewster said.

“We see it every day,” she said. “The number of people falling into homelessness in Iqaluit over the last couple of decades has become impossible to ignore.”

That’s especially true over the summer months when the weather is warm enough for people to gather outdoors in groups and for longer periods of time, she