EDMONTON - The end of funding for a federal scheme to help low income earners upgrade their homes means Kim Frost faces another chilly winter in her Westmount house.
For more than 30 years, the city has handled Edmonton applications to the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program (RRAP), which provides up to $16,000 for heating, structural, electrical, plumbing and other needed repairs.
But the roughly $1-million budget didn’t come through this year, leaving Frost and about 250 other people on Edmonton’s waiting list in the cold.
“I’m trying to keep my house … but you can’t live in it like this. It’s a cute house, but it’s very, very cold,” the spa receptionist says.
“I think it’s very unfair. You’re putting a lot of hope in a lot of people’s lives … I have been hopefully waiting for far too long.”
Frost, who missed previous chances to apply, found contractors and acquired the multiple quotes she needed.
She was in line for $15,600 to replace her furnace, install a new basement window, upgrade wiring and make other improvements to the 1 -storey three-bedroom home she and her former husband bought in 2000.
There’s almost no insulation in places and the bathroom pipes occasionally freeze in winter, but with an 11-year-old son she can’t afford to pay for the renovations herself.
“It’s very frustrating. I don’t know what to do … It would take years for me to save the $15,000 for the work.”
The RRAP money doesn’t have to be repaid if recipients remain in their homes afterward for up to five years, and assistance was also available for seniors and disabled people.
The city was ready in April to send Frost’s application to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), which administers the program.
However, CMHC staff in Edmonton advised them not to bother until they received this year’s budget money, which despite repeated assurances still hadn’t arrived by fall, according to a city email to Frost. A spokesman for CMHC, reached for this article, couldn’t say what happened to the program.
Walter Trocenko, manager of the city’s housing branch, says they’ve been in a holding pattern since February while other levels of government looked at overhauling the way Canada’s affordable housing schemes are provided.
Each province and territory is reaching an individual agreement with the federal government, and the CMHC spokesman says Alberta has not yet signed a deal.
“We can’t continue to approve applicants for funding that may not exist. The program will probably change,” says Trocenko, estimating his staff were working on 250 files.
“Many of those individuals have been waiting. It’s been difficult for us. Our intention was to have something worked out with the province to understand how this might move forward. We haven’t been able to do that.”
Efforts were delayed by last spring’s federal election and the selection of a new premier and cabinet, along with the need for provincial housing staff to focus on rebuilding homes after the Slave Lake fire, Trocenko says.
Although RRAP is successful in Edmonton, it has been around so long a “realignment” is probably necessary, he says, although he couldn’t give any details.
While he hasn’t been able to talk to his provincial counterparts about the issue, he hopes to have something in place within six months.
In the meantime, Trocenko admits the delays — the city website says it’s not taking RRAP applications until at least next year due to the size of the waiting list — have led to complaints.
A Municipal Affairs spokesman wouldn’t discuss where his department stands on the issue or whether it’s talking about it with other levels of government.
However, Coun. Kim Krushell says she intends to find out from city officials what’s going on.
“I’m frustrated that we have citizens out there, especially in the lower income brackets, trying to do the right thing like purchasing a furnace that’s more energy efficient, or making their house safer,” Krushell says.
“And yet they’re on hold because the program suddenly doesn’t have funding … It’s a good program. To suddenly change it on a dime seems interesting.”
Frost simply plans to hunker down for another uncomfortable snow season in her drafty 64-year-old home.
“I’m just going to dress very warm and hope it isn’t a really cold, cold winter.”
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