Mr. Speaker, this morning I had the misfortune to encounter two severely intoxicated homeless people engaged in a vicious brawl here on the grounds of the Legislative Assembly, no less. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common sight here on the streets of Yellowknife and Yellowknifers have had enough. I'd like to ask the Minister responsible for Homelessness, what is the plan to address the severe need to do something about the homelessness problem here in Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi. Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, as well, coming into work today encountered two individuals out back who were intoxicated; however, even though my history has been 20 years working with homeless people, I for one cannot attest that those two individuals were actually homeless people. I'm not sure if what we were seeing was public drunkenness, loitering, or homelessness. I often think that sometimes people see them all and just automatically claim homelessness which is actually an insult to people. What is our plan for moving forward? As Members know, we did have a community forum here in Yellowknife. Out of that forum, we developed two committees. One committee is looking at policies that impede people from accessing housing supports, government supports actually, and the other committee is led by the City of Yellowknife, and they'll be looking at all of the recommendations brought forward by that committee and bring it in timelines. Not only was that forum done, we also sent out a letter as well asking for input towards that. More than 65 recommendations will be reviewed by the City. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for her answer. Of course as the Minister knows, the point in time survey undertaken by the City of Yellowknife showed that on a per capita basis we have a significant problem in this community as large the City of Toronto, so I think it's safe to say much of what we see is in fact part of this issue. We've heard of these two working groups and the recommendations, but we have yet to know how that's going to take shape. How will these working groups… Or recommendations… How many chronic homeless persons will be housed as a result of these recommendations?
The actual amount of homeless people within Yellowknife is really a hard number to pin down, as I've stated before; however, the City of Yellowknife did do a point-in-time survey last year and they figure that 139 people were actually homeless within the city. I, of course, based on personal experience, would beg to differ. How many people are we going to help within the next time? When I was elected as Regular MLA and as Minister, my commitment was to listen, and I have listened to the MLAs within the Yellowknife region. A couple of our MLAs, Yellowknife MLAs, have been really adamant and said you need to work with Housing First, you need to partner with the City of Yellowknife. In fact, I was even accused that if I didn't do that, I was not doing my job, quotations. Well, I've listened to the Yellowknife MLAs and we are going to partner with the City of Yellowknife in their Housing First endeavour, and we are going to move ahead with the emergency shelters as well and they're semi-independent. With the City of Yellowknife, the partnership that the Yellowknife MLAs really advocated for, we would be housing one person for this fiscal year. With the semi-independent housing options that we've done with the emergency shelters, we will be housing 30 people within this fiscal year. Together we will be housing a minimum of 31 people this fiscal year.
Those are interesting numbers. Again, my question was focused on chronic homeless people, which Housing First is designed to address. How much is this plan going to cost? Let's talk about chronic homelessness, not those in need of shelter, but chronic homeless people use 51 per cent of our emergency services and are a huge cost to the taxpayer. How much are we contributing and paying to make sure this plan works and that we can get that number higher than one?
All of the people that I'm talking about are actually chronic homeless. Within the partnership with the City of Yellowknife, they will be housing one chronic homeless person. They have $240,000 to put to the table for this initiative this year. As well, the GNWT is putting forward $150,000 to help them with this, for a total $390,000. For the 30 rooms that we're going to do, the semiindependent with the emergency shelters which are also working on a Housing First model, in fact, actually went down south to study the model, we will spend less than three times the amount, a onetime funding of $600,000 maximum for the 30 people.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister advise on a timeline for this plan to roll out and when we can expect to see the results and evaluate our success? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As stated, we are partnering with the City of Yellowknife on the strong advocacy of the couple of Yellowknife MLAs. Their RFP just closed today. We are not sure when it will be done, but they have promised us that their one individual will be housed within this fiscal year. As for the 30 individuals that we are working with, the construction will begin this summer, and, before the winter, that construction will be finished.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
