Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Just over the course of a few years, there has been a trend of people moving to the winter crossing. These are people that have gone through the housing programs, and most of the time they have been evicted or else they have arrears with the Housing Corporation. There have been noticeably several houses that have been sitting empty in Fort Providence that the Housing Corporation owns. How much longer will those empty houses sit there idle and empty? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a few empty houses in Fort Providence. There are a number of reasons people are evicted. Arrears is one of them. There could have been noise and disturbance, and a number of other issues that they are evicted from public housing. Usually there is opportunity there for them, if they enter into some kind of agreement, to try and get back on to the public housing waiting list and hopefully back into public housing.
Our goal as NWT Housing Corporation is to house people, not to evict them. But at the same time, as a partnership, they have to work with us. Many times we have exhausted all other options and eviction is the last resort. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’d like to thank the Minister for outlining at least the process of trying to exhaust all options. The focus of my questioning is not so much the eviction practice but to try and highlight just the issue of arrears. Most of the time people are facing obstacles in small communities as it is, so it becomes an obstacle.
Will the NWT Housing Corporation remove the barriers of these obstacles standing between homeless families and empty houses in Fort Providence? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation will do our part in trying to get people into units. At the same time, the clients themselves have to remove some of their own obstacles. In many cases all we ask is that they enter into some kind of an agreement with the LHO, and not only enter into it just to get back on the waiting list, but we would like them to honour it. We’ve seen situations in the past in a number of our communities, where a lot of clients that have been evicted have entered into a repayment plan or some kind of option with the LHO and they have honoured it. We’ve seen some success stories in that. A lot of times it is just a partnership that has to be worked out between the client and the local LHO.
Mr. Speaker, will the arrears be adjusted for previous public housing tenants as they will be for current tenants, so they have at least a starting chance to restore their credit ratings and eligibility for housing programs? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, no, we will not adjust their arrears. There have been opportunities in the past through a number of different programs where the arrears have been adjusted, the latest one being when it was transferred. The role of the assessment was transferred back to the Housing Corporation or the LHOs from ECE. A lot of adjustments were made at the time and there was a significant decrease in arrears.
Again, a lot of times it’s a matter of the client coming in, verifying their income, because if you don’t verify your income, you are automatically assessed at market rate and that tends to have their arrears build up. But there is always opportunity for adjustment. Again, verification of income is the biggest one. If they feel that they have been charged too much, then they can verify their income and adjustments will be made. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aside from evictions and looking at a repayment plan, at least there are options for clients or previous clients, what level of assurance can the Minister provide in terms of looking at some immediate options in terms of addressing people with arrears that want to get into the housing system? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the first thing that could happen is the tenants themselves could make a point of going into the LHOs and working out some kind of plan with the local housing authority, and then they can honour the plan. I believe that once they do that and they show good faith, I think good faith will be shown on the LHO’s part.
As I said before, it is a partnership. We will work with them, but they have to be willing to work with us also. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
