Eviction leaves Behchoko family of 7 scrambling

Dorothy Adzin and her partner Edward Quitte are wondering where they are supposed to go after being evicted from their public housing unit.

The couple, along with their five grandchildren, were evicted from their four-bedroom unit this past September.

Eviction notices are relatively rare: the N.W.T. Housing Corporation issued 47 eviction notices in the 2015-2016 fiscal year for its nearly 2,800 housing units, territory wide.

The couple say they have been living in public housing for the past 35 years, and were paying about $800 to $900 a month in rent. But Adzin says she has been unemployed for the last six months and is planning to return to work in the new year. Quitte is also unemployed but occasionally gets the odd job that lasts for a couple of days at a time.

In January, the N.W.T. rental officer issued a decision ordering them to pay accumulated rent arrears of $41,708.54 or face eviction. It was the only rental officer decision regarding Adzin and Quitte since 2005.

Adzin says she never received any notices from the housing corporation prior to being evicted. She says two representatives from the housing corporation showed up and told her that she and her family had to leave her housing unit.

"I said, 'what?'" Adzin says.

She says they told them to grab their stuff and leave. Adzin says she had just enough time to pack some clothes, and grab the mattresses. There were 10 people living in their four-bedroom unit. The couple care for five grandchildren; the youngest is one and a half years old.

Once they left their housing unit, the couple attempted to stay with their older son, who also lives in public housing.

"We stayed over there; they told to us to move out again," she says.

Adzin says public housing officials had found out they were staying with him and warned her son that he and his family could also face eviction if they remained in the residence.

Adzin says most relatives and friends that they can rely on also live in public housing. She says she is afraid of telling anyone where she stays for fear of getting them into trouble with the housing authority.

"Right now we're just going house to house," she says. "We got no place to go."

Long wait-list

Officials say there are about 505 people living in public housing in the community of Behchoko, which has a total population of 2,100. There are 184 housing units, but 29 of those are undergoing renovations. The wait-list for public housing in Behchoko is 153 applicants long.

According to the 2014 NWT Housing Corporation survey, the percentage of "households in core need" in Behchoko was more than double the territorial average. That's households where housing wasn't affordable, wasn't in good repair, didn't have running water or an adequate number of bedrooms, among other criteria.

One of the options Adzin and Quitte have is to develop a plan to pay back what they owe in rent. Tenants who have been evicted and the housing authority sign a contract that outlines a monthly payment plan. After six months of consistent payments, the tenants can then be put back on the public housing wait-list.

An applicant's position on the wait-list is determined through a point system ranging from '0' to '100'. A score of 100 is considered high priority.

But formerly evicted tenants, such as Adzin and Quitte, that have fallen into arrears automatically lose half those points. That puts them likely toward the bottom of the list, facing a long wait for a home.

It is an issue that is not uncommon for many residents living in smaller communities in the territory, where private rental options are few.

So far this year, between April 1 and Sept. 12, there were 45 eviction orders issued on behalf of the N.W.T. Housing Corporation. In 11 of those instances, tenants left voluntarily or by force. The remaining orders were either cancelled or the tenants were working with the local housing authority to address the outstanding issues.

Earlier this month, 12 households in the community of Behchoko were facing eviction from public housing.

Tom Williams, president of the N.W.T. Housing Corporation, says his department is working with the tenants to keep them in their homes. He said no one will be evicted from their units before Christmas.

"Eviction in our case is the last step in a long process," he says.

"We always try to work with the tenants to try to resolve the issue."

According to Williams, reasons for the eviction notices range from repeated noise or damage to failure to pay arrears – with households owing as much as $60,000.

An auditor general's report in 2008 identified rent collection as an area where many N.W.T. community housing authorities were having difficulty. From 2008-2009 to 2010-2011, Behchoko public housing had a collection rate of 68 per cent of assessed rent.

Territory's responsibility

Behchoko Chief Clifford Daniels says his community has a serious housing shortage. He estimates that the community can use at least 100 additional housing units to help ease the strain.

Daniels says he understands that families such as Adzin and Quitte are in stressful situations, but housing is a territorial responsibility and his community does not have much to offer them.

"I really don't have anything in place for people being evicted cause we don't really have adequate amounts of housing to accommodate our citizens," he says.

"The options are very minimal right now."

He says the Tlicho government will be developing a working group to look at housing issues in Tlicho communities and housing will be a topic at next month's meeting between the Tlicho executive and GNWT ministers.

In the meantime, Quitte and his family continue to seek somewhere to live.

"Please help us," he says. "We need a place to stay."