Province takes steps to fill vacant homes
Published Monday October 27th, 2008
Poverty Staff has been increased in Moncton region
MONCTON - Social Development Minister Mary Schryer increased staff Friday in the Hub City to fill dozens of subsidized homes that have sat vacant for months.
Last week the group Voice of Real Poverty complained that more than 50 low-income units in Moncton were empty while hundreds of impoverished people wait to move in.
Bethany Thorne-Dykstra, president of the non-profit group, said she alerted Schryer's department about the problem in August, demanding to know why homes were empty for three to six months at a time while her clients could not find a place to live.
Without an answer, she took the concern public Oct. 17.
Last Monday, Schryer ordered staff to review the province's management of low-income housing.
She has now allocated additional staff to work around the clock to fill the housing vacancies with some of the 4,200 New Brunswickers waiting for affordable housing.
"There has been extra staff that has been allocated to work and the minister has approved that, if necessary, overtime will be granted so that the available units are being assigned to tenants," said Shannon Hagerman, spokeswoman for the department. "She has asked the staff here to make sure we are working the Moncton region to ensure that any available units are filled."
The Moncton region has told the department it expects to have the process of filling the units completed in a matter of days.
"If it requires staff working overtime in terms of ensuring that is done, the minster has approved that," Hagerman said.
A review of the process to fill vacant low-income houses province wide is still ongoing and it is still unknown if staffing throughout New Brunswick will increase on a permanent basis.
The Moncton region has also changed how it notifies those on the wait list that they have been given a low-income housing home.
Prior to Thorne-Dykstra's complaint, prospected tenants were sent a letter in the mail telling them they had received a subsidized home. Now, to speed up the process, those waiting will be contacted by phone.
The province owns 5,059 low-income housing units and provides rent supplements to landlords for another 7,788.
The average rent supplement is $356 per month.
There are a total of 1,056 people waiting for a home in the Greater Moncton area, 1,047 in Saint John, 763 in Fredericton, 480 in Edmundston, 305 in Miramichi, 235 in Woodstock, 226 on the Acadian Peninsula, 204 in the Chaleur region and 131 in the Restigouche.
"We have been told that all available units there (in Moncton) will be filled as soon as possible," Hagerman said.
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The money paid in overtime could have been better spent had the department been doing their job all along. How about finding homes for those in other parts of the province as well?