Low Income People Involvement of Nipissing (LIPI) will begin accepting applications for its property tax hardship program Thursday.
“We’re looking forward to it,” said Lana Mitchell, executive director of LIPI. “We’re accustomed to working with people who are faced with sudden, unexpected hardships.”
Mitchell is expecting there to be quite an uptake in the program, saying she’s received calls over the past couple of weeks from people asking about it.
The City of North Bay included the hardship program in its 2021 budget through a $300,000 commitment from its reserve fund. The program is intended to assist people whose finances have been affected by COVID-19 to the point where they fell behind on tax payments.
Mitchell says LIPI and the city have been ironing out the details of the program over the past couple of weeks and is confident the process will be simple.
“It’s not a complicated process by any means. It’s simply just sharing information that shows that you had an income interruption and that you’ve had to prioritize how you were spending less income coming into your home,” she said.
Mitchell says documents like bank statements, employment forms and tax bills will be needed, with the application process available online. She adds successful applicants to the program should expect a check within days of submitting their forms.
Here are the criteria for successful applicants:
- Available to North Bay residents only
- Must be for primary residence (owner listed on title)
- Aid to be provided for 2020 final and 2021 interim property tax arrears due to impact of COVID-19
- Applications with property tax arrears prior to February 1, 2020 are not eligible for the program
- Resident must demonstrate ability to maintain property taxes under normal circumstances
- Resident must demonstrate significant impact to household income resulting from Covid-19 pandemic:
Impact defined as:
- Experienced, at minimum, a decrease of 50% of total household income during either of the lockdown periods outlined below in comparison to 2019 income levels during the same timeframe
Lockdown Periods defined as:
- Period 1 – March 23, 2020 to June 12, 2020
- Period 2 – December 26, 2020 to March 7, 2021
- Program will match taxpayer payments made to property tax account
- Maximum contribution of 50% of tax arrears determined at time of application
- LIPI will make payments directly to City on behalf of taxpayer
Mitchell says if LIPI spends the $300,000 allotted for the program, she’s confident the city will provide more support as needed.
