Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I talked about the homelessness report done by the City of Yellowknife. I would like to ask the Minister responsible for Homelessness if there has been any progress made. The report was released in the spring of last year. From then until now, what progress has been made to address some of the issues in that report? Thank you.
Masi. Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Quite a bit of progress has actually been addressed. The City of Yellowknife, I commend them for doing the ten-year report. It was amazing, and it actually backed up a lot of things that I had been saying, that it needs a continuum of services; we can't just look at one model; we have got to look outside of the community, et cetera.
The City of Yellowknife asked me if I would sit on a committee and work with them on that. I agreed to do that. The City of Yellowknife has taken the lead on that committee. I have met with them once, and we are working towards that. The Department of Health and Social Services has done the sobering centre. I committed to doing homeless shelters in communities outside of Yellowknife. We have almost got the three communities that are covered. We are looking at a homeless support worker position.
I could go on and on. We have done a lot towards working on the plan, and again, my biggest stress is that the City of Yellowknife did an amazing job of doing that report, and I must commend them. They didn't only look at the City of Yellowknife; they looked at the extenuating circumstances, as the Member had stated. Homelessness in Yellowknife is not just a Yellowknife issue; it's a territorial issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It appears in the report that talks about all of the reasons for homelessness and maybe addressing homelessness should be to resolve those issues, but it sounds like the Minister is telling me that they're putting things in place here that I'm not sure that it addresses the homelessness anywhere other than sobering up the people on the streets, maybe, if we're talking about the sobering centre.
I'd like to ask the Minister if there are homes being built in other communities to address homelessness on that report. When she mentions that there are homes being built in other communities, are those directly for the individuals who are considered homeless in that report? That's my question.
Yes, my years before being a politician, Mr. Speaker, I did work with the Yellowknife Women's Society, and so homelessness was something that I have been working with for many, many years. I recognize that the majority of people actually who access the supports in Yellowknife are from other communities. When I came on, I committed to not only looking at Yellowknife but other communities. Right now, we have a fourplex in Behchoko that is just recently done. That is ready for operation and that will serve people who are homeless within that community. We have a fourplex that's just being completed in Fort Simpson that is looking at homelessness. I believe it's Simpson. Then the last one was the homeless shelter that we're still looking at bringing into Aklavik.
The other thing that we're doing to address homelessness is we're doing a pilot project. A lot of times people have a place to live before they become homeless. We're doing a pilot project in Behchoko where actually we're having a homeless support worker. A housing support worker; it's not homeless. A housing support worker who will work with people who are on the last kind of chance, they're falling through the cracks, and they may need a little bit of support and able to retain their homes because, if we can be proactive and we can actually help people to retain their homes before they become homeless, Mr. Speaker, that's the most humane way to deal with people. These are people. They aren't numbers, so keeping them in their homes is a priority of mine.
I'd like to ask the Minister if there are other departments involved in trying to address the homelessness issue. As I see it, a big part of the homelessness issue is lack of employment. I'd like to know if there's any work that's being done to try to get people employed so they can find their own homes.
Yes, the Ministers actually sit on a social committee. On that committee is the Minister of Justice, the Minister for Health and Social Services, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and myself, the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Education, Culture and Employment is doing a lot to try to get people employed, but also what we're looking at is people within the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. We have people who have huge arrears, so that is one of the policies that we're looking at currently to see if we can actually look at ways to support them so that they can get employment opportunities, work with us to actually pay off some of their debt. It might not be the traditional sense of employment that people think, but in my opinion, it's employment and in gear to actually helping people stay in their homes, and that is my focus as the Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is certainly a big issue. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if there is an actual budget put in place to address the homelessness identified in the report. I'm looking about a holistic type of approach here in trying to resolve the issue. What I'm hearing and what I know from my own history of just being a Northerner is that homelessness is not necessarily an inventory issue. I'd like to ask the Minister if they're doing things to try to get people into homes and homes that actually already exist. Thank you.
Yes, there are budgets. I don't know the exact number. We'd have to pull them all through, but like I said, there is a budget for building of the homeless shelters within the community. We provide the operating money with that. We have food security initiatives that we provide to people. That comes with a budget. We also have a homeless assistance program. Again, I'm not sure of the total budget, but that is just people with up to $1,500, a one-time funding that they can actually use to repatriate, if they wish to go back to their communities, if they need to pay off a little bit of debt so that they can get a home. That funding is actually specifically for people who are struggling, so that they can actually not enter homelessness. There are quite a few programs within the Housing Corporation that are specifically budgeted to address homelessness or to keep people housed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
