Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made a eulogy, but today I have questions for the Minister responsible for Homelessness. In many cases, NWT residents lose their homes to fires, mould, and in my region, soil-line erosion, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my first question to the Minister of Homelessness is: the Homelessness Assistance Fund provides only one-time funding, which means that once you’ve used it, you can’t use it again. What other options are available for residents experiencing housing crises? Quyanainni, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Homelessness is a serious issue that we don’t take lightly. The HAF program, the Housing Assistance Fund is meant to provide one-time assistance so that people that are at risk or in homelessness situations can get the assistance needed to provide them with support so they can get into secure housing. However, within that, we recognize that there are some issues, so we really try to do counselling for people because often when people get to the point where they have lost their houses, there’s underlying issues. It could be poverty, it could be addictions, it could be a multitude of issues. We provide counselling for people as well that are in those situations so that we can address underlying causes that so to ensure that they won’t be in that situation again. People are really encouraged to seek assistance from your community social workers to deal with any kind of mental health, trauma, addictions or any kind of concerns that they may feel are that are not able to maintain them in housing, as well as the counselling support that the LHOs within each community will provide. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the response from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, my second question is what is the status of planned work to enhance the women’s shelter, women and emergency shelter care in Tuktoyaktuk for 2016 and 2017?
The corporation realizes that the shelters and the foster care shelter is really important and vital to our communities as it provides a safe place for our children in this case and for women that are experiencing family violence. In order to do that, we try to maintain them as best as possible. The NWT Housing Corporation did receive federal funding for renovations for family violence shelters and we’ve met with the, we’ve got together with the five shelters and we’ve put all the money on the table and we’ve asked them to kind of prioritize what they see as the needs. On top of that, the Housing Corporation has gone into each of the family shelters and done an assessment of what they think the needs are and what we see that what we can look at fixing for them. Within the shelter that we’re talking about, however, there is, both of them are really likely to require replacement. The renovations in that shelter would be substantial. ’We’re just trying to review what the best course of action would be to provide another alternative for that shelter.
I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, my final question is: what is the status of planned work for the Nunakput communities, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, and Ulukhaktok, to help these communities to access homelessness funds?
Working with the communities and getting the communities to actually prioritize their own needs is something that the Housing Corporation is working towards and will be a big focus within our community surveys that are coming out lately. Within these regions actually, we did get their priorities. Currently, we have two multi-year agreements to support the homeless priorities of the Nunakput communities, Sachs Harbour Community Corporation. We have funding in the 2016-17 budget for food programs, community homeless planning, community kitchens and food banks. The community itself identified that their specific focus is on a food bank for the homeless and the less fortunate. ’We’re working towards that. The hamlet of Paulatuk, for our 2016-17 monies, the funding will go for teaching people who experience homelessness and who are at risk of homelessness, learning how to cook healthy food, working with Nutrition North and so far, it’s been really successful in that community. We’re looking at community-driven solutions and working from where they want us to go.
Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
