Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Can the Minister tell me if there is a shortterm plan after August 31st to ensure continuous services provided to the homeless shelters in Inuvik; if so, what is the plan? Is it a not for profit to take over or is it GNWT for another winter? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Homelessness.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question as well. We did have a conversation a couple of days ago regarding this subject as well. We have been administering the homelessness shelter in Inuvik. We did run into some issues with that region and with the NGOs in that region as well too. Right now we are looking at funding provided up to March sorry, up to August 31st of this year. And as we go forward, we will have to identify longterm plans for the shelter as well too and I will keep the Member updated as well.
As for our conversation that we did have a couple days ago, I did instruct the department to get back to me next or June 9th with a concrete plan on what we will be doing for the rest of the year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over this last little while I've been doing some more work on these homeless shelters, and what I found is there are positions that have been created in Inuvik and one of the things is and I'll repeat this, and we've all said it in the House. Inuvik, for one, is not Yellowknife. So you can't pick up what has been done in Yellowknife and drop it in Inuvik and expect it to work and all the same job descriptions and, you know, and expect that expertise to be in that community.
So can the Minister tell me when her department will ensure that there's a dedicated person on the ground in Inuvik that's located there, either in the regional office to lead this, and support the current structure until longer term plans are initiated in Inuvik? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member as well too. I do see the differences between addressing homelessness in Yellowknife and also in the higher Arctic communities. Right now we are in the process of hiring a position, and we are in the process as well too as identifying the responsibilities of that position. I would like to see the position administer the northern part of the region, but those conversations are taking place right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, there are those that are homeless in Inuvik that are homeless because they're in between the emergency shelter needs and living independent in housing. So they are sober, they are you know, they are doing things that they need to do to be able to be in their own place, but some are just not able to have that independent living. And so when they do get housing, they end up evicted within months, like a few months. So is there any plan in Inuvik to work with these clients to have more stable supportive longterm care housing because right now we have two shelters, and I believe one is almost kind of acting that way but the funding is coming from the homelessness and not in a collaboration with health. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member. I clearly see and understand the significant need in this region as well too. But we have struggled with nonprofit organizations. We also have been in conversation with the Indigenous governments in the Member's riding as well too. So right now, just looking and trying to identify possibilities for the region, one thing that I did bring up to the department is that we do have a number of units that are there in the community and really wanting to engage and navigate with the nonprofits that are there currently and looking at suitable services that we can provide. I will have to follow up with my colleague, Minister of health, just to verify what services that we do offer and if there's an opportunity for us to further look at opportunities with the vacant units that we currently do have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Inuvik is the community with the second highest homeless population in the NWT, or is it? We don't know, because we don't have anyone or any documents that state this. We don't have a designated person that is to do this work. So, you know, to find out what the accurate numbers are. So I'm asking the Minister to have somebody in Inuvik, whether it's this person that she's looking at, that can do this work in the Beaufort Delta because if we don't know who and how many residents we are serving, how can we solve the issues that they're ending up homeless and come up with a longterm tackle to prevent those issues? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question as well too. And to be honest, we don't have the data collection for the homelessness population throughout the territory. This will be coming forward with the homelessness strategy. But I just wanted to just have some numbers out here for the Members that we do provide funding to the Teepee Housing in Inuvik as well too, with that collaboration approach as well, and we did provide significant amount for the homelessness shelters in Inuvik as well. And just for the Members, that over the past ten years housing has invested $33.5 million into the Member's riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Written questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
