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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Families who struggle to afford Yellowknife's high rental costs will have some relief available this fall.

A resident of Rockhill looks out her a window onto the street below. Although transitional housing is intended for up to one year, a lack of available low-income housing has kept her at Rockhill for two years. - Lyndsay Herman/NNSL photo

Effective Sept. 1, the NWT Housing Corporation will start accepting applications for a new rent supplement program which will pay up to $500 of an accepted applicant's rent cost for two years.

"The last community needs survey that was done identified that there are a fair number of individuals in the territory who are paying 60 to 70 per cent of their income on rent," said David Steward, president of the NWT Housing Corporation. "We think this program will be a great help to them to make the rental accommodation affordable."

The housing corporation will continue to accept applications for between six to eight months. The program will give out approximately $1 million and is expected to help between 175 to 200 families with their rent for up to two years.

Steward said the program is aimed specifically at residents who struggle to afford market housing but make too high of an income to qualify for income support or be identified as a priority for public housing options.

A single mother with three children, who asked to remain anonymous, is one of the individuals stuck in housing limbo. She has been living in transitional housing at the 39-suite Rockhill apartment complex for two years even though it is not intended to house residents for longer than one year.

She has stayed that long because she cannot afford the cost of market rent but makes too high of an income to be a priority on the public housing list. Since demand for public housing is so high, the wait list does not move quickly.

"It's taking so long just because there isn't enough housing," she said.

Her rent charge in transitional housing is approximately only $200 less expensive than the average market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Yellowknife.

"A lot of the families that live in Rockhill, in transitional housing, are working poor families who struggle to pay rent," said Lyda Fuller, executive director of the YWCA, the organization which runs Rockhill. "Even though our rent is considered affordable, it's still high because Yellowknife (rent) is high. Right now the real rent geared to income is public housing ... but the supply only meets about half of the demand."

Steward said demand for public housing has not been increasing but federal funding for public housing is declining each year and will decline by another $12 million over the next 20 years.

"The government is quite challenged to keep up with the existing stock that we have," he said. "There are waiting lists so there clearly is more demand out there than what our current stock can meet."

In the meantime, 100 families consistently sit on a wait list for transitional housing at Rockhill, a wait of approximately six months, said Fuller.

"I know they are building up a storm and hoping that will free up the rental market," she said. "But (the question is) 'What's the pent up demand?' and 'Can people even access the rental market?' (The city needs) not only more units but some kind of affordability, too."

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