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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Barbara Clement knows she'll be in Yellowknife for a long time, she just doesn't know where she'll live or if her common-law partner will be with her.

Barbara Clement, from Fort Simpson, has been at the Vital Abel Boarding Home in Ndilo for five months and is unsure if she'll be able to move to a place of her own during the four or five years she needs to be in Yellowknife for kidney disease treatment. - Daniel Campbell/NNSL photo

She's not in Yellowknife because she wants to be. Clement, 49, has kidney disease and needs dialysis treatment three times a week. The Department of Health and Social Services flew her to Yellowknife from her hometown of Fort Simpson on March 18 so she could get treatment at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Clement's treatment is scheduled to last four to five years.

She's frustrated with her living conditions. Clement wants to move into her own place in Yellowknife so she can be with her partner again. The government moved Clement to the Vital Abel Boarding Home in Ndilo on March 20. She's provided meals, accommodations and travel to the hospital for her treatment. But Clement says her partner, Peter Hardisty, isn't allowed to stay with her.

Hardisty was designated as a non-medical escort for Clement. According to NWT medical travel policy, he is entitled to travel, food and accommodations while in Yellowknife, but those benefits expired Aug. 14 and Hardisty was forced to leave his partner and return to Fort Simpson.

"They pulled me and my common-law apart," Clement said.

Clement said she needs her partner by her side, as she's often in a fragile state after her dialysis treatment. She's also concerned how her partner and three children will be able to afford to visit her while she's in the boarding home.

"I was in tears. I want someone to be here with me."

Clement has been trying to secure housing in Yellowknife so Hardisty can move to the city to be with her. She's dealt with the health authority, social services, income support, disability workers and NWT Housing Corporation, all to no avail.

"It was really confusing when I came here," Clement said.

"I don't know how I feel, I've had it with them."

Vince Halushka, general manager of the Vital Abel Boarding Home, said patients on medical travel normally stay at the home for shorter terms. He was surprised to learn Clement had been there for five months already.

"We don't run into these scenarios very often. Historically that's just the way it goes, medical travel checks them in and we just look after them as best we can," Halushka said.

The boarding home doesn't have a policy for the maximum amount of time a patient can stay, but Halushka said escorts, like Clement's partner, are normally allowed to stay for three weeks. Longer term stays require re-approval by the health authority.

Either way, Clement said she wants out of the boarding home as soon as possible.

"I can't live like this here, I have no privacy," she said.

Clement feels like she's stuck in a bureaucratic grey zone. She has no money, since she to left her job with the government in Fort Simpson to come to Yellowknife for treatment. She's applied for income support without success.

In an e-mail, Ashley Green, a spokesperson with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, said anyone who is on medical travel has their needs covered by the medical travel policy. But medical travel only provides for boarding house accommodations.

Clement has tried to secure independent housing with the NWT Housing Corporation but she doesn't have the money to pay for it since her income support was cut off.

Further complicating matters, Clement is paying a mortgage for a home in Fort Simpson she no longer lives in.

Revi Lau-a, spokesperson for the housing corporation, said the corporation typically works with Health and Social Services case workers for complicated cases like Clement's.

Lau-a said someone moving to Yellowknife will have to stay in the city for six months before they're eligible for housing, after which they'll need to wait a further, undetermined amount of time.

"We do have a waiting list to get into public housing," Lau-a said. "A number of people qualify for public housing but it's not always available."

The housing corporation can give priority to those with disabilities, but it's not certain if Clement would qualify.

Fed up with being handed off between different agencies, Clement said she's out of options.

"I'm just going to drive them crazy by calling a lot and maybe they can help me out," Clement said.

But the stress of her ordeal is taking its toll.

"It's making me more sick, I don't feel good sometimes," she said.

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