Sitting in her wheelchair, Kayla Crozier listens to the raindrops fall while she's inside one of the tents that's popped up by Fraser Tower. It's quite a change of pace from where she used to be.
Crozier used to live at Bison Estates, before getting evicted.
"I was evicted because they said late payments and arrears," she explained. "I was late on my payments, but I've been on disability, so my responsibility is to go to income support, fill out a form and then they pay my rent. So, I went and did what I was supposed to do, but the worker there wasn't doing what he was supposed to do, so I was late on paying my rent."
She added she's currently trying to appeal her eviction to the NWT Supreme Court. But what might be Crozier's biggest issue right now is her inability to find a lawyer who can help her. Peter Adourian, a lawyer who's not currently not practising, said he's not aware of any lawyers representing people in landlord-tenant cases at this time.
"It's a huge gap in access to justice," he said.
"There's no public money available as far as I'm aware for paying a lawyer," he said, adding that while the legal aid clinic in Yellowknife can provide preliminary advice, there's no one that will go to court with a plaintiff or defendant at a hearing or an appeal.
"Our law also does not give attorneys' fees, or costs, in landlord and tenant cases, so a lawyer can't even be paid, even if they're successful. They're not entitled to any compensation from the other party."
It's exceptionally rare to be represented as a tenant in a landlord-tenant hearing, said Adourian. It puts added responsibilities on the tenant, which they might not know how to handle.
"As a lawyer, when somebody comes to me and describes a problem, generally speaking, I have to interpret that in a way that's going to make sense for the court and is in [alignment] with our laws," Adourian explained. "When they don't have that person to translate their concern into a legal argument, they're on their own to make their own argument and that's not always as compelling."
That's exactly the case for Crozier, who held her face in her hands while trying to describe the amount of stress she's under when representing herself in court.
"I can't find a lawyer. I've been searching. All through the law society list of lawyers, I've called everybody. I even offered to pay and I can't find anybody to help me," she said.
Crozier added she also visited the outreach clinic for help, but she's used up all her allotted time there. On the GNWT's website for legal aid, it explains an outreach lawyer can provide someone with up to an hour of free confidential advice.
"I've been doing so much SA国际影视传媒� so much work and stuff. I don't know how to be a lawyer," she said. "It's so overwhelming, and I have kids and I'm homeless. I can't find any lawyer to help me."
Crozier's three children, Zakiya, Ziiona and Zavfeyrah are eight, two, and one year old, respectively. They're currently staying with their grandparents, but Crozier said it's too toxic an environment for her to stay there.
"It's impossible, so I only moved out of there last week. I had to walk away from my kids because I can't have my kids be around arguments all the time."
Her next day in court is set for early September.
As for solutions so there won't be anymore cases like Crozier's in the future, Adourian said there are a number of possibilities.
"One is to provide public funds to assist people with landlord-tenant hearings. Another is to incentivize lawyers in private practice to assist people by either providing attorneys' cost in the legislation or by providing a pot of money that's either raised privately or publicly to pay lawyers when they do represent tenants in these cases."
Ngan Trinh, a communications advisor for the Department of Justice, said a person can choose to be represented by an advocate or legal counsel, but the Residential Tenancies Act doesn't allow for legal costs or fees to be covered.
"If a rental order is appealed to the Supreme Court, a judge may order costs," Trinh stated in an email.
