Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I think it gives me a clear picture or understanding of how this is being work done. Recently, there was an effort, as I stated in my opening comments, to tackle and address the homelessness issue. One particular community, there was an organized body and organized effort to try, at least, to work in cooperation with the Housing Corporation to address fundamentally the homelessness issue, and to try and bring some resolve to the matter. I understood, then, there has been a part from the program supplements that have been successfully delivered in communities. I just wanted to come to an understanding. There were some pilot projects, and whether those pilot projects were focused on, either been program supplements or building projects in small communities, I understood there were a few communities that were working with the Housing Corporation in addressing this matter? Mahsi.
Debates of Feb. 22nd, 2017
This is page numbers 1883 – 1930 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was housing.
Topics
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Caroline Cochrane Range Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there was a request for proposals out to support three communities; actually, four communities. Only three communities actually applied for that funding at the time. We did save the money for a fourth community, which allows us to branch into the Sahtu to deal with that money. We are open to all ideas to address homelessness. Homelessness is not only about having shelters. Homelessness is about having permanent residents to support people. Within that continuum of care, you need to look at shelters. You need to look at single units. You need to look at training for people to be able to maintain their units. It's a huge continuum to deal with homelessness. It's not easy to save this alone. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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February 22nd, 2017
Michael Nadli Deh Cho
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One thing that I am curious about. In terms of the attempts of defining homelessness issue, especially homelessness in the context of communities, they could be presumed that people who are homeless are not homeless per se, but because the system that is there, sometimes they don't fit the criteria. One of the challenges that people face in the communities is that they have gone through the public rental system. For some reason or another, they have defaulted on their rent. Over time, they have accumulated their arrears. Sometimes, it works against them. They cannot qualify for public housing units. Especially, these people are single. Sometimes, they are bachelors, and they are looking for a place to stay. I wonder if, perhaps, part of the homeless initiatives that this department could maybe review, like instances where people have arrears, and whether there may be some ideas to try to resolve the challenge, and at least bring more opportunities for people to access the housing program, including homelessness for that matter? Mahsi.
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Caroline Cochrane Range Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. People who currently owe arrears to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, we try not to penalize anyone. Although at the same time, we do have to be fair to all residents in the Northwest Territories, so we cannot allow people not to pay their rent and then expect their neighbour to be paying their rent, and we have people waiting to get into units. People do need to know that if they come in and they make a repayment plan, and they pay for six months consecutively, they get back on the waiting list, so nobody actually should be penalized for longer than a six-month period.
We are looking at other ways to address the arrears because it is not acceptable when people have arrears that are $50,000. That is not something that I am comfortable with. We are looking at ideas that we have come up with such as programs that people can actually provide sweat equity into some work programs so that people can actually look at arrears, and I am hoping that. There are some ideas that we have come up with. We are not going to write off arrears. That is not fair to everyone, but I am hoping that the survey results will actually show us more productive ways that we can actually support people in addressing the issue of arrears.
I should say that, hopefully, in the future this will not be an issue at all. I have given direction that after two months we automatically start the eviction process. It is not that I want to evict people, but if someone is paying $70 a month, it is a lot easier to pay off a $140 bill than it is to pay off thousands of dollars in bills. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am wondering, on page 358, the debt repayment, is that the total amount of money that is owed to the Housing Corporation by tenants?
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Caroline Cochrane Range Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, that actually is the annual pay-down of the CMHC, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, debt. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
Thank you. In that case, where will I find the number of the amount of money that is owed to the NWT Housing Corporation by current or former tenants? Thank you.
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Caroline Cochrane Range Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That information is not in this. This is about money we are spending, not money we are collecting. That is in our audited financial statements. That amount is in there as a receivable. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
Okay. It sounds like I need to find that information in another place. I am going to just ask now a little bit about the transitional supportive housing. Is this the money for the capital upgrades to the Salvation Army and the Centre for Northern Families to create the semi-independent units? Thank you.
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Caroline Cochrane Range Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we are talking about page 359 and it is the $600,000, then that answer is correct, yes.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, has work started on either of these projects? Thank you.
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Caroline Cochrane Range Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sadly, at this point, we are still waiting for both organizations. The Salvation Army is still waiting for land tenure from the City of Yellowknife. I have tried to talk to Mayor Heyck and asked him if there is any way that he could speed that process up. The Yellowknife Women's Society, when they were doing the renovations to the daycare that they are moving into, found asbestos, so that is just being cleared up. We are expecting that, by the end of this month, their renovations will be done. At that point, they will need the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to go in and approve it because it is a daycare, a licensed daycare, so there will be some paperwork with that.
I should also point out, though, that within our mains, we do have an extra $375,000 that we will actually be looking at utilizing to build more and maybe to work in partnership with other organizations to provide the same support in this coming year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.