The trend of condo conversion in Whitehorse has claimed another 50 rental units.
Kareway Homes, the new owners of Sternwheeler Village, told residents Monday they had 90 days to decide if they wanted to purchase their units.
But most tenants likely won’t be able to afford the $230,000 price tag.
Ken House, a veteran of the Canadian military and an explosives expert, currently pays $1,050 a month for his Sternwheeler unit.
His average hydro payment, which includes electric heat, is $220.
House said tenants were also told rent would rise by 20 per cent in October, bringing his rent to $1,260.
His $1,500 Old Age Security payment and the “dollar a year” he gets from his explosives training company won’t stretch very far when the rent increase comes into effect, he said in an interview Thursday afternoon.
As well, much of his military and disability pensions have gone to the company, House told the Star.
“It will cut me back to rent and hydro; everything else will have to go – Internet, TV, telephones,” he said.
“I have to move.”
Even if tenants could afford to buy the condos, House said, “they’re not worth it.”
“They’re full of dry rot, black mold, and talk about poorly insulated; we put plastic baffles between the rooms and upstairs during the winter time and over the doors.”
Sternwheeler Village is home to many residents on social assistance, single mothers, the working poor and seniors who have had to take in family members as roommates to afford the rent, House said.
He himself is eligible for social or seniors’ housing but he wants to remain independent as long as he can.
Adaline Huston, another Sternwheeler resident, is a new, stay-at-home mom. Her daughter Laeila is 15 months.
“I’d found a place where I could raise my daughter, at least for five or so years hopefully, and now we have to move,” she said Thursday.
She’s been living in Sternwheeler Village for less than a year.
She and her boyfriend can’t afford to pay what Kareway Homes is asking for the condos, so they’re looking to purchase something a little less expensive.
The alternatives, she said, are renting again or moving in with her boyfriend’s parents.
Two other residents of the townhouse complex spoke with the Star Thursday on the condition of anonymity. One a single mother of three.
She said she can’t afford to buy her unit, and rents have escalated in the city to the point where she doesn’t think she can afford a rental unit where each of her children could have their own room.
Another concern for her is the low rental vacancy rate in Whitehorse.
A housing report released in May by a doctoral student from Carleton University said a healthy rental vacancy rate is between three and four per cent. As of March, the vacancy rate was 1.3 per cent in Whitehorse.
The report says the last time the city’s vacancy rate was more than three per cent was in 2008.
Another resident, a hairdresser and mother of two whose husband works as a power line technician, reiterated House’s concerns about mold.
“It’s disgusting,” she said. “My little boy has asthma now, just from living here.”
A friend who used to live in the townhouses, and also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said her nephew suffered from chronic chest infections which have subsided since leaving the complex.
All three women are concerned about the state of the units, saying they’re in need of significant renovation.
The Star was told today that Wayne Cunningham, the owner of Kareway Homes, is unavailable for comment until next week.
Kate White, the NDP critic for the Yukon Housing Corp., wonders where the 50 families will go if they can’t afford to buy their units.
“There are 133 cases on Yukon Housing last time I heard waiting for social housing, we don’t have 50 places in the newspaper for rent, so what happens?”
White said she’d like to see the government address the housing crisis “period.
“To date, we still haven’t seen them implement their housing strategy. They say their housing strategy was in their platform; well if you look at the platform from October (2011), it’s pretty slim, so what’s their solution?
“I’d like to see it sooner than later, and I’d like to be able to tell people who are calling, who are upset and afraid that the government is there and is supporting them, but I don’t see that right now,” she said.
House said he’d like to see some action too.
“If (Premier Darrell) Pasloski doesn’t do something pretty soon, he’s going to be a one-term person.”
Scott Kent, the minister responsible for the housing corporation, was unavailable for comment on the residents’ plight before press time early this afternoon.
Elaine Schiman from cabinet communications said today housing continues to be a priority for government and various departments are working on a number of initiatives which will soon be made public.