DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION - A Fort Resolution couple claims they have been denied assistance from the NWT Housing Corporation to repair their home unless they "sign over" a vacant house they also own.

Priscilla and Louis Lafferty, who are both on income assistance and unable to work because of medical conditions, are looking for $3,000 to $4,000 for a new boiler and to continue pipe repairs.

Louis Lafferty said a housing corporation official told him last July and again in August that the couple would have to sign over their vacant home before getting help.

"I think it's more like blackmail," he said.

Priscilla Lafferty said they would not need the housing corporation assistance if they could sell the second house, and they have been trying to sell it.

"We'd have our place fixed up in a jiffy," she said.

The Laffertys and their three children have been living in their house for two years, except for nine months in Fort Smith. They inherited the house from Priscilla Lafferty's parents.

Priscilla Lafferty said the pipes in their home froze up while the family was in Fort Smith last winter as she attended Aurora College.

"We tried every which way to get help to fix our pipes," she said.

Eventually, her husband made repairs to the home - such as a new toilet bowl and water pump - with money they have scrounged from income support, family allowance and occasional impact benefit agreement payments from a diamond mine.

Still, their home does not have running water, Lafferty said, noting she has to dip water from an indoor tank. It takes two hours for her to heat water on a stove so a family member can have a bath.

The housing corporation's demand to sign over their second home is kind of ridiculous, she said. "We're not going to give it away."

A GNWT assessment notice on the property values the land at $25,100 and the house and other improvements at $46,000. The Laffertys bought that home in 1996 for $65,000

However, Priscilla Lafferty doesn't believe their second home is now worth much. It is very old and not in working order, and has been condemned in the past, she noted. "I wouldn't let anybody live in there."

Lafferty said the situation with the housing corporation is frustrating. She suspects the corporation made the request because it is looking for more land to build houses in the community.

Stephen Pretty, communications manager with the NWT Housing Corporation, said he can't speak specifically about an individual case.

However, Pretty said, in general terms, someone who obtained a house through one of the corporation's home ownership programs might be asked to return the house to clear up arrears. A family which owns a second home might also be eligible for assistance from the corporation, he said.

"It wouldn't exclude them," Pretty said.