Over the summer, three people died while living at the Chilkoot Trail Inn.

They were all on social assistance and struggled with alcoholism. Local advocates say their deaths highlight the need for more affordable and supportive housing in Whitehorse.

This is the final instalment in a three-part series that began last Friday.

Hannah Zimmering spends her days scanning newspaper and online rental ads, meeting with landlords, viewing apartments, buying furniture, grocery shopping and cleaning.

As the housing navigator at Blood Ties Four Directions Centre, Zimmering helps the centre’s clients – people who have HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C or who are at risk – find a home.

People come in the centre’s door every day looking for housing, she says.

Since October 2013, Blood Ties’ Landlords Working to End Homelessness (LWEH) program has been focused on finding long-term solutions – well-maintained units that clients can live in for the foreseeable future.

Through LWEH (pronounced leeway), Blood Ties rents private units and sublets them to their clients. The organization pays the damage deposit and purchases furniture for the new resident.

Zimmering provides support to the client, and acts as a liaison between tenant and landlord.  

Landlords are generally receptive to the idea once they learn about Blood Ties’ level of involvement. The problem is more often finding affordable units, Zimmering says.

But when she does, the end result is rewarding: the client has a secure, comfortable, supportive place to call home.

When Zimmering meets with them at their new places, they’re often excited to have a guest, making her coffee or tea.

Over time, she’ll see positive changes around the home – photos up on the wall or new kitchen items they’ve purchased.

“Everyone deserves a beautiful home to live in that they’re really excited about coming home to,” she says.

The Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society Yukon plays a similar role in finding housing for its clients, and the Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre (VFWC) will be launching a position similar to Zimmering’s later this year.

Meanwhile, two Yukon First Nations have opted to increase housing stock themselves.

Last year, the Carcross/Tagish First Nation built three tiny homes in Carcross for its citizens. And in 2012, the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build the organization’s first affordable housing project on settlement land in Canada.

“It’s neat that people are just getting tired of waiting for government to provide a good solution, and are trying to make things work by doing it themselves,” says Hillary Aitken, VFWC’s program co-ordinator.

Charlotte Hrenchuk, co-chair of the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition (YAPC), believes there is a growing appetite in Whitehorse to give more attention and assistance to vulnerable people.

She points to the forums organized by the City of Whitehorse and the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Yukon government’s Housing Action Plan, released earlier this year.

“I’m hoping that things are going to start changing,” says Hrenchuk.

At the launch of the Housing Action Plan in June, the roughly 50 attendees took part in a “dotocracy” exercise, placing dot stickers onto the key actions in the plan they felt were most important.

Within the “Housing with Services” category, the most dots were stuck to: Develop and implement a housing strategy to address homelessness in the territory, says Mary Cameron, director of community partnering and lending with the Yukon Housing Corp.

Within the “Rental Housing” category, the most emphasized point was: Review current government rental housing incentive programs and recommend changes to address gaps, with a priority on affordable units.

The YAPC and other local organizations have been calling for more affordable housing for years. Housing is typically considered affordable if a person spends 30 per cent or less of his or her income on rent.

The Canadian Rental Housing Index, released last Thursday, rates the Yukon’s housing affordability as poor, with the average rent being $952 plus utilities.

Roughly one-third of renters in the territory spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, while 13 per cent of renters spend more than 50 per cent, the index found.

People, particularly those who are dealing with addictions and mental health issues, should have adequate, affordable housing, says Kwanlin Dün Chief Doris Bill.

“Something where they can get off their feet, where they can work towards getting off social assistance,” she says. “That’s just not the way the system is set up right now.”

Cameron mentions the Yukon government’s three capstone projects, all social housing for seniors: a 34-unit home that opened last fall on Alexander Street, a 48-unit home by the waterfront that’s slated to open next year and a six-plex in Mayo that opened last month.

The government has been sharply criticized by local housing advocates for its handling of $50 million in Northern Housing Trust money – funds provided by the federal government in 2006 for affordable housing.

Last year, the government cancelled plans for 75 new affordable housing units to be built in Whitehorse.

This year, it opted to spend the remaining $6.3 million on increasing municipalities’ rental supply, rental subsidies for families, grants to improve homes’ accessibility and grants for upgrades to rental units.

Critics questioned why the government took nine years to spend the money, when they say the need for affordable housing is so urgent.

The majority of people on social assistance in the Yukon live in private housing, but some rely on hotels, in some cases as they wait to be accepted for social housing.

Rent is often high at these hotels – $900 per month and up. Some people have to use their food cheque to cover the cost, says Zimmering.

In 2014, the Department of Health and Social Services spent $585,000 on housing an average of 58 people per month in hotels.

“It’s enough that instead of putting it towards a hotel, you could take that money and build a building and house everyone permanently,” says Zimmering.

Hotels aren’t ideal accommodations – they offer small rooms and no kitchens, they sometimes have bed bugs or mould, and tenants have no rights under the Landlord and Tenant Act, says Zimmering.

“The hard part is sometimes it is a really good option because it’s better than sitting outside,” she says. “But I always wish that there was an actual home for them to go to.”

“I think, in a sense, social assistance is caught between a rock and hard place,” Hrenchuk says. “If they don’t pay those rates (for hotel accommodations), then the person is out on the street. And if they do pay the rents, then they’re subsidizing those conditions.”

Hotels aren’t regulated as a residential tenancy under the 2002 Landlord and Tenant Act. A new act was introduced in 2012, but hasn’t come into effect yet because its regulations aren’t completed.

At the time, the Yukon government said this was expected to happen in 2013.

Bonnie Venton Ross, a spokeswoman for the Department of Community Services, says the regulations are still being finalized.

“We anticipate that the new act and regulations will come into effect in the coming months,” she writes in an email.

The new legislation should set out minimum standards for long-term rentals, says Hrenchuk. This would require hotels to maintain a certain standard of conditions.

Hrenchuk says she wishes action would happen faster to improve the affordable housing shortage.

“Everything always seems to take so long,” she says.

“In the meantime, people die. That sounds very crass, but it’s the facts. And people shouldn’t be dying.”