Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have three sets of constituents who are all facing significant housing challenges. I have sent emails to the Minister of Housing about all these cases over the last three weeks, and I have yet to receive any responses to my inquiries. So today I am going to share some details about what these constituents are facing.
Mr. Speaker, the first constituent, who I will call Jane Doe, is a single mother who is facing eviction. Not only that, Mr. Speaker, but she never received prior notice of an impending eviction taking place. So she was caught off guard completely and was unexpectedly forced to leave her house. This happened in early September and she and her daughter have been couch surfing ever since. Jane does owe some housing arrears and is working to pay it off. In fact her mother, who is a senior living in the special care home, has given her a significant sum of money to help her daughter pay down her arrears. Jane Doe has tried going to Sutherland House, a house for abused women in Fort Smith, but the facility is at capacity. She also has multiple health problems and frequently uses the food bank to get by.
Mr. Speaker, the second set of constituents, whom I will call John and Jane Doe 2, are victims who lost their house to a tornado that struck Fort Smith three years ago. Since their house was destroyed, they were put into market rental housing because Housing NWT evaluated their income and deemed their income as too high to qualify for public housing. However, after they sold their property they were instantly ineligible for public housing but Housing NWT failed to communicate that to them. So John and Jane 2 have been spending tens of thousands of dollars on extremely high rental fees for the last three years. They should not have been paying so much money so Housing NWT needs to reimburse this family from some of their loss of income that they were needlessly spending and readjust the rent cost. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted
The third set of constituents is another couple whom I will call John and Jane Doe 3. This couple lives in a public housing unit however during the summer, they were living in a campsite near Fort Smith because their unit was not liveable. They had leaks coming in from their upstairs bathroom which leaks in the kitchen downstairs, and there was tons of water damage throughout the House with mould developing in some areas. Jane Doe 3 also has arthritis and can't go upstairs of any multilevel building. There was also an incident where an employee at the local housing authority pulled up to Jane Doe 3 while having a yard sale and yelled, "Just move out of that house." She was trying to pay her light bill with the things she was selling in a yard sale.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, these families are struggling and need help now. Fort Smith does not have a homeless shelter, so these people are particularly vulnerable, especially because winter is here now so it's getting colder outside with each passing day. I hope to see some real solutions from the Minister of Housing on these files. I will have questions for the Minister later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Members' statements. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
