DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION - A Fort Resolution man is protesting the rundown state of his public housing unit by refusing to pay rent or the arrears he has built up over the years.

Darin McKay estimated he now owes $17,000.

"I've been neglecting paying like they've been neglecting us," he said.

Darin McKay poses in front of his Fort Resolution public housing unit with two of his children - nine-year-old Darian, left, and Kylee, 6. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

McKay said he paid rent off and on over five years, but stopped paying several years ago because no renovations were done on the house.

Plus, he said it's not healthy in the house, saying it's cold in the winter.

McKay said he talked to the NWT Housing Corporation last year, and agreed to pay $400 every two weeks for rent and to cut into the arrears if renovations were done.

However, he said no renovations were done to the small three-bedroom house.

In fact, the only renovation he can recall ever being done is a hot water heater being replaced some years ago.

McKay has lived in the house with his wife and five children for nine years.

"For me, it's like we're living in squalor," he said, adding most of the time he and his wife sleep in the living room.

McKay said he paid rent - $32 a month because he was on income support - before he got his current job as facility maintainer with Deninoo Community Council three years ago and continued paying for a while afterwards. McKay said he was paying what he could. "My kids have to eat."

In addition, he said he has done some of his own renovations, such as interior painting and fixing a door.

In March, McKay was profiled in a News/North article about his work with the council.

As a result of the article, he received a letter from Tom Makepeace, the South Slave director with the NWT Housing Corporation, who wrote McKay had failed to pay rent even though he is working.

The letter stated that, since McKay had promised to pay but had failed to do so, his file would go to a rental officer if an immediate payment plan is not put in place.

"This could very well result in your family having to provide your own private accommodation," Makepeace wrote.

McKay said he was puzzled by the letter, claiming Makepeace already knew that he was working for council.

McKay responded with a letter to Makepeace in May, saying many people in Fort Resolution are living in Third-World conditions because of the housing corporation's lack of funding.

"It is due to these living conditions that my wife and I find it difficult to bring ourselves to pay to live in squalor," he wrote. "I am positive that if my family and I were relocated to a suitable housing unit we would gladly pay our rent in a timely manner."

McKay said Makepeace's letter left him wondering whether his family would end up homeless and in a tent.

"I think they should start us on a clean slate and give us a brand-new house," he said, adding there are many empty units in Fort Resolution.

McKay, 37, said he has applied for new housing, but has been turned down because of the arrears.

Stephen Pretty, a spokesperson for the NWT Housing Corporation, could not speak specifically about McKay's case because of privacy concerns.

"In general terms, our position is tenants need to live up to obligations with us when they sign a lease agreement," Pretty said.

If a tenant has accumulated arrears, he or she can work with the local housing authority to develop a repayment plan, he said.

If a tenant pays rent and makes an effort on arrears, he or she could become eligible for new housing, Pretty said. "We need to see six months of rent payment, combined with some portion of the arrears being dealt with."

Pretty said it is very uncommon for a person not to pay rent as a protest, adding he is not aware of it happening in the six years he has been with the corporation.

Of more than 2,300 public housing units in the NWT, 1,300 are in arrears for rent by at least a month, he said, adding that includes money owed by people who have been evicted or have left voluntarily.

Pretty said the government collects about 90 per cent of the rent owed each year.

If a matter comes to eviction, he said the process can take several years, beginning with a series of notices and ending with an eviction order from the NWT Supreme Court.

"It's certainly not immediate," he said, adding eviction is not something the government ever wants to do.

The eviction rate is 0.5 per cent, or about 20 a year.

Pretty said tenants never pay more than 30 per cent of their household income, and there are deductions based on the condition of a unit.