Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also for the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s transfer of the responsibility for public housing rent collections from ECE back to the Housing Corporation. While a modest beginning, the Minister must now act to clean up the wreckage left behind by that failed and destructive policy.
There are now tens of thousands of dollars of debt for most of each family that is now in rental arrears, yet that debt is an illusion resulting from an income documentation process that was unrealistic, unworkable and, in many cases, humiliating. What aggressive action is the Minister taking to roll back that grossly inflated debt? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was some concern that, during the transfer over to ECE, there was a lot of arrears accumulated because people had to go to different places, and in some of the smaller communities they had to fax off their income. This is a discussion that I had with the LHO managers yesterday. There is always an opportunity for tenants to come back to the LHO as they are all starting to come back now, because the LHOs are doing their assessment and verify their income for that particular time.
If they verify their income, then adjustments will be made. So we will see a lot of the arrears come down, but then the onus is on the tenants to verify their income and Housing will do what they can to make the adjustments and take some of the arrears off their books. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I understand the theory. The Minister has given us the theory but, as I said -- and perhaps the Minister didn’t hear in my statement earlier today -- I have constituents that have taken all of their pay stubs months ago into the Housing Corporation at least four months ago. They are sitting there waiting. They are paying $200 per month in rental arrears deductions, taken from the $800 left each month of disposable income. That is after rent and food for a family of seven. My constituent needs relief, Mr. Speaker. That is what we are talking about here. Can the Minister tell me if he has a rental arrears SWAT team in place now who will actually go after these unreal debts and ease this misery that this failed policy has caused? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we don’t have a SWAT team in place. The Member said that this has been going on for four months now. Today is actually the first that I have heard of it. If I had some communication with the Member, I may have been able to follow up on it and make sure that the tenants in his riding don’t have to wait so long for an answer.
I make a commitment to the Member. If we can discuss this afterwards, I will forward the information on to the proper people and see if we can have this dealt with as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, I am profiling one example here. I am looking for a systemic response. I am sure the Minister understands that I appreciate his offer to help this family.
The situation of rental arrears is obviously urgent and stressful for both individuals and for the local housing offices. Each housing office’s total rental arrears have exploded, again because of this situation. The Housing Corporation reacts by reducing LHOs’ subsequent funding according to the amount of uncollected rents. As a result, one housing association has come close to declaring bankruptcy and handing public policy responsibility back to the department. Is the Minister ready to take over housing delivery from bankrupt associations all over the NWT? What is he doing now to prevent this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we will have no bankrupt authorities across the Northwest Territories. Ones that have faced some challenges because of the funding and the way it was flowing, we are working with them to try and get the situation resolved.
We have a stabilization fund that we are hoping to work with some of the authorities on to get them up and operating. We are quite confident that, with the transfer back to the LHO and a more, as far as the funding goes, if a more stable source of funding to the LHOs I think we are going to see huge improvements, but we don’t anticipate any authorities across the Northwest Territories going bankrupt. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. A short, final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to ask about the 30 percent of gross income being unrealistic and crushing, but I think I will hold off on that and just ask the Minister in respect to these rental arrears.
It is stressful. It is urgent. What sort of time frame are we talking about for these people that are living under these crushing debts of tens of thousands of dollars with very modest incomes? They need relief. When will it happen? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, speaking territorial-wide, obviously we have heard of the situation with the one constituent which four months is an awful long time to wait or hear an answer on providing all the information that we have asked them to provide. Looking at it territorial-wide, obviously it is going to be a challenge.
With all the folks coming back to the LHOs now, getting their assessments done, there is a lot more of that face to face. They will have an opportunity to bring in some verification of income. That will be taken care of. The adjustments will be made. We will do our part as the Housing Corporation and LHOs. We will do our part in sharing that.
A lot of the arrears are written down, but we are asking tenants to do their part in verifying income. I think, with them coming into the LHOs, we are going to see a lot of the arrears.
We all realize that there was a $4 million increase in the amount of public housing arrears during the transition period. We are hoping to get the numbers stabilized and actually have a true arrears number. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
