Nova Scotia loosens eligibility rules for home reno programs in 3 counties

Marlene and Stewart Davidson want to remain in the home they've owned for 52 years, but their almost century-old house in Nova Scotia's Pictou Countyneeds work.

"We need a new roofand doors, and I was hoping to update our bathroom," said Marlene Davidson, a72-year-old mother of four."Just help with those sortsof things so we can stay in our own home."

The provincial government has programs designed to help seniors pay for repairs and renovations so they can stay in their homes longer, but the Davidsons' application was rejected.

The couplediscovered they were ineligible for the Senior Citizens' Assistance Program because they earned slightly more than the annual income threshold of $28,500 set for that part of PictouCounty.

Just five minutes down the road from their home in Coalburn, in another part of the county, the cut-offfor the program wasset much higher at$47,500 a year.

"That was an almost $20,000 discrepancyandI just didn't feel it was fair," said Davidson. "I made a joke and said,'I guess I'm on the wrong side of the river.'"

Province 'very sympathetic,' says deputy minister

The province's deputy minister of seniors and long-term care acknowledged the issue as it relates to Pictou, Colchester and Kings counties during a meetingWednesday of the legislature's public accounts committee.

"We're very sympathetic of these issues with respect to income differentialsone side of the street to the other," Paul LaFleche told the all-party committee.

"We're doing the best we can to [make everything] uniform."

Household income thresholds are determined using census data from Statistics Canada, but the province is no longer sticking strictly to the geographic boundaries used in those surveys.

Changes to be expanded

The changeon March 1 to provincially funded renovation and accessibility programs only affects a few hundred people in Pictou, Colchester and Kings counties. However, it will eventually be applied to ahost of government programs aimed at helping lower income residents in those counties.

Making the change universalwill take time because those programs are jointly funded by the province and Ottawa, which has to approve the adjustment.

Once it comes into effect hopefully this spring as many as 10,500people in those three counties will become eligible for programs includingrent subsidies, public housing eligibility, as well as the home repair and disability adaptation programs.

LaFlechesaid the changes that have already come into effectare making the system more fair.

"What we've basically done is said now everybody is at [the same threshold]," he said in an interview."And the neighbour 100 feet from you isn't getting a better deal thanyou."

That comes as a relief to Davidson.

"I appreciate this so very much," shesaid. "It means a lot to us."