Federal housing strategy won't lead to more public housing units in N.W.T.

The federal government's national housing plan won't go toward adding to the N.W.T.'s public housing stock.

Instead, the N.W.T. Housing Corporation is hoping a new federal pot of $60 million will bring private investments in affordable housing to the territory.

Housing Minister Alfred Moses joined representatives from the housing corp. at the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday to update the standing committee on social development on negotiations with the federal government over housing money.

Last year, the federal government announced a 10-year, $40-billion national housing strategy with $300 million specifically earmarked for the North. Territorial representatives were frustrated to learn the N.W.T. would only be getting $36 million from this allocation.

New money comes as old funding dries up

Over this same time period, the N.W.T. government will see other pots of federal funding dry up, adding up to a loss of $53 million over 10 years.

To make up for this, the federal government announced additional funding under the national housing strategy, but that won't alter the housing corp.'s plans in the long-term.

"By 2038, all federal funding for public housing operational maintenance is currently scheduled to be eliminated," said Tom Williams, president and CEO of the housing corp.

That means the housing corp. can't afford to build more public housing units because it would increase its operations and maintenance budget.

"We're pretty much stuck at 2,400 units," he said.

One out of six households in the N.W.T. are in public housing, according to Williams. MLAs at the meeting indicated that wait times to get in can be years-long in some communities.

With the housing corp. maxed out on public housing and demand still soaring, the N.W.T. government is hoping to attract private investments in affordable housing.

Moses announced the federal government has agreed to carve out $60 million from its national co-investment fund to people in the N.W.T. who want to either construct new affordable housing in the territory or repair existing public or affordable housing.

The funding is part of a cost-sharing agreement where the federal government would kick in as much as 75 per cent of a project.

"All signs point to the co-investment fund," said Moses. "That new [funding] is really going to be a game changer for a lot of different groups."

Money for repairs 'impossible' to get, says MLA

Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh MLA Tom Beaulieu expressed some skepticism that people across the N.W.T. will actually be able to access this money.

"[We need] a simple program which allows individuals to apply for repairs," he said. "Instead of having a fancy name like co-investment, we just want somebody to get their house repaired. And that seems almost impossible."

Beaulieu called himself an expert in asking for help on behalf of his constituents, who either want to buy their public housing units or repair them.

"That's what I do a lot," he said.

Franklin Carpenter, vice-president of programs and district operations for the housing corp., said his organization has eliminated income thresholds to access funds. It has also tweaked requirements for co-payments, when tenants split repair costs with the government. Carpenter said those changes have resulted in a "significant increase" in people accessing repair money.

"We've really stripped [our programs] down over the years to the bare bones in terms of trying to make them as accessible as possible," he said.

"We've maxed out our budget twice so far this year … We're just concentrating now on getting people through the winter with our emergency repair program."

Hay River North MLA R.J. Simpson said there are developers who want to build in his community, but have trouble accessing loans to do it. He wanted to know when the government would be coming to Hay River to walk people through the process of applying for the co-investment fund.

Moses said there's no need to wait for his team to come to them. Anybody interested can contact his office directly.