Seniors housing program working to 'significantly' reduce 400 person wait-list

The seniors housing program is working to reduce its 400 person wait-list by the end of 2021, according to the director of housing service for P.E.I.

"We're working very diligently in terms of options for those 400 seniors that are on that list," said Sonya Cobb.

"So we're quite confident that as we approach our fiscal year end, that our registry will be significantly less than what we're seeing right now."

The program provides housing support for low-income seniors in the province. Cobb said some of the seniors on the list are no longer in need of the program and have moved on to community- or long-term care facilities. 

"We're currently updating our registry to ensure that we clearly understand what their needs are," she said. 

'Working diligently'

Several initiatives are also being launched in the upcoming months to help tackle the wait.

"We have approximately 400 mobile rental vouchers that are available for our social housing programs," said Cobb. "We have 182 new units ... that are also going to be coming online by the end of March."

Public reports have faced a delay too. 

"To be honest, our reporting piece has fallen behind a little bit and we're working diligently to get those reports up to date," she said. 

Currently, work is being done on the 2017-2018 file, but Cobb said that should be issued by the end of November. She said they are also working with an external auditor to get the financial statements between 2018 and 2020 finished. 

"We certainly understand the importance of having that public reporting completed," said Cobb. 

"It's important for the public to understand what the programs are doing, how they're supporting Islanders and for taxpayers to understand how their resources are being used to do that."

AG recommendations implemented

Back in March, P.E.I.'s auditor general found that three of the 10 recommendations put forward in 2017 for the seniors housing program had not been implemented. 

But now, Cobb said everything has been satisfied. 

"At the time we were verbally advised by the auditor general's office that we're pretty close to meeting the recommendations but still had to dot some i's and cross some t's," said Cobb.

"We're confident that when the auditor general reviews the work we've done since March 2020, when they last looked at the file, that they will agree with us that those recommendations are implemented."

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