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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Annie Emaghok says when her family moved from a cabin built by her husband to a public housing unit in Tuktoyaktuk in 1969, they were told they would own their new house after 20 years if they kept up with rent and repairs.

"That's the reason we moved to housing," Emaghok said. "We had a good log house."

The family moved to another unit in 1975, where Emaghok and her husband, Adam, still live.

The couple still doesn't own their home, but the NWT Housing Corporation's policy for seniors meant that when Adam turned 60, they were exempt from paying rent.

Now, the corporation's recently announced new rent scale means the Emaghok's will again have to pay rent - for the first time in 20 years.

That is an additional cost the pair simply can't afford, Emaghok said.

"Everything, groceries cost so much," she said. "We're just barely trying to survive each month with what we get from pension and here we're going to start paying rent from our own pockets."

While the new rent scale is split into three different regional zones and is based on gross income, the minimum amount of rent is $70 a month.

The maximum is $1,625, which is based on a monthly income of $8,334 or more.

Robert C. McLeod, minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, said similar to the Emaghoks, a number of people across the territory claim they had agreements stating they would own their homes after a certain amount of time had passed.

McLeod said many of these were verbal agreements and staff has been unable to find any paperwork that would support the claims.

"We've tried to go back and see if any of these agreements were documented," he said.

McLeod said while some residents are upset about the changes, community consultations that took place indicated that people wanted a fairer system, which he said the new program delivers.

He added there were positive aspects to the changes, such as encouraging residents to seek employment. Rent scales previously based on 30 per cent of a household's gross income are now capped at 19.5 per cent. That means an increase in wages doesn't necessarily mean an increase in rent.

Even so, Barb Hood, executive director of the NWT Seniors Society, said for seniors in smaller, remote communities, the change will be especially difficult.

"Even small rent will have a substantial negative impact on older adults because the cost of living is so much higher in those places," she said.

Hood said it is often impossible for seniors in smaller communities to supplement their incomes or find ways to reduce household costs.

"The opportunity to shop around or to get food at reduced costs are really limited," Hood said. "Plus the fact that people on fixed income, older adults, in part, do not have the opportunity to supplement their income in any way. The climate for work is very, very poor."

Hood said in 2005, the society supported the idea of seniors paying a certain amount of rent, if it were paired with an agreement with the corporation to provide better support for seniors who wanted to remain in their own homes.

"Some seniors wouldn't mind paying a little bit for rent if people in their own homes could be give much more support by the housing corporation," she said.

However Hood said a lot has changed in the past seven years, such as the global economic recession.

"Seniors are feeling the high costs as much as anyone," she said.

Hood said the society is asking the corporation to delay implementing the changes until a cost analysis is performed.

"Let's take a cost/benefit analysis of this," she said. "Is this going to cost the government more than the rent they're going to collect?"

Additionally, Hood said the changes were not properly discussed with seniors or the society.

"It appears it's a done deal, it's going to happen," she said. "We resent the fact that we were not consulted."

Hood also said there needs to be a framework in place to co-ordinate senior services in the territory, such as the fuel subsidy program for seniors.

According to information provided by the society, a variety of factors need to be considered before implementing rent scale changes, including recognizing the lack of support services available to many seniors, the cost of living across the territory, the effects of residential school experience and recognizing past promises and commitments made by the government.

Until these are taken into account, rent scale changes will have a "devastating impact" on many of the territory's seniors, the society also stated.

Emaghok agreed.

"They're asking seniors to pay rent from their own pocket and that is not fair to seniors because they're not working anymore," she said.

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