NNSL (DEC 23/96) - Four families in Rankin Inlet may be out on the street this Christmas because they haven't paid their rent.

The local housing association is preparing to evict all 15 people within the next few days.

Lorne Kusugak, hamlet councillor, said he is appalled by the actions of the Rankin Inlet Housing Association. "All I know is that four families are being evicted and it's happening before Christmas," he said. "That shouldn't be."

But Bill Gofton, acting manager of the housing association, said the tenants were served eviction notices in early November and should have been out of the units more than a month ago.

The eviction process has taken months and, in some cases, more than a year to get to this point.

"I would prefer to do this at a different time, but it's been the delay of the sheriff's office that has brought us here," Gofton said.

Officials from the Rankin sheriff's office could not be reached for comment.

Whatever the reason, Kusugak said this is the wrong time to put people out on the street.

"If they're going to put down the hard fist, do it after Christmas," he said. "Give them a place to celebrate Christmas. It's a damn shame that Housing is doing this. What's another month of rent, anyway?"

In defence of the tenants that will be evicted, Kusugak said that there is a good reason why they aren't paying their rent.

"They can't pay their rent -- some of them -- they've been paying high rent for substandard housing," he said.

No one in the town seems to know where they can stay. There's no temporary housing shelter in the tiny community.

Sharon Swanson of the Social Services Department in Rankin Inlet, said she wasn't aware that the residents will soon be without a place to live.

"I don't know where they could stay," she added. "A proposal went to council about a year-and-a-half ago for a temporary shelter, but they weren't in support of it."

Gofton said he will try, however, to see if he can intervene and stop the evictions.

The families facing eviction are the hamlet's most immediate concern, but the overdue rent is also throwing a monkey wrench into the territorial government's plans to privatize public housing.

Plans to transfer Rankin's public housing units to the hamlet on Nov. 1 have been put on hold.

"Some of the councillors, including myself, didn't want to take it over because of the arrears associated with it. We would only take it over if we could do it better."