After 20 months in tent, Nain man moves into new house

A man who lived in a tent in Nain for nearly two years finally has a more substantial roof over his head.

Thanks to an initiative by the Torngat Regional Housing Authority (TRHA) to put people in need into small houses, Toby Kojak now has a single room home.

In 2014, Kojak was living in Happy Valley-Goose Bay at Newman's boarding house. When it shut down, he returned to Nain but it was hard to find a place to live.

"One house where I stayed already had like 9 people staying in there and it was already crowded I guess so I moved from place to place," Kojak told the CBC.

Luckily, Kojak said,he had family to help. His cousin lent him a tent which he eventually bought. He set it up and lived on the side of a hill for 20 months with no running water and no electricity.

"Last year sometimes it used to go to minus 50 with the windchill and that was pretty bad," Kojak recounts,

"Most of the time all the water was frozen, wake up in the morning and the blankets are allfrosty and cold."

'Angry a lot of the time'

Kojak saidhe went to all levels of government for help.

"I was just angry a lot of the time," he said. "But mostly I was just angry at myself cause I knew that the federal government, or the provincial government or the Nunatsiavut government, they didn't put me in the situation that I was in, I put myself in that situation and I took responsibility for that."

Last year, Kojak went to a Torngat Regional Housing Association meeting and told his story.

He was approved for a single room house.

"I just started crying. I didn't know how to react. It felt like it wasn't real."

Worth the wait

The housing association started building the units in 2014 to deal with homelessness in the community. Six units have been built so far, and others could be built this summer.

"The clients are very happy but we also get a lot of positive feedback from the community as well," said Margaret Fox, chair of the housing authority.

Asfor people waiting for a home or for those that don't have a place to stay,Kojakhas a message.

For those of you out there that still don't have a proper place to live, just don't give up.- Toby Kojak

"Don't give up. There was a couple of times I thought about, I wont get into it, but I felt like I wanted to just give up and things were hopeless," Kojak said,

"But I didn't and I knew things would get better and for those of you out there that still don't have a proper place to live, just don't give up."

Kojak finally moved into his new home in February.

"It was worth the wait," he said.