Before Jack Jackson moved into the Roadhouse Inn and began working there, he spent most of his money on alcohol.

A year and a half later, he's got a home theatre system including a DVD player, computer and other belongings in his room.

'I like buying things,' he said in an interview this morning between duties at the hotel on Second Avenue.

Jackson is one of 18 residents living on the top floor of the hotel, a program started by the Youth of Today Society. Jackson also works at the Roadhouse.

The society has been using the top floor of the Roadhouse as a residence for youth. Vicki Durrant, the former Blue Feather Youth Centre director, manages the hotel. The youth centre sits next door as well as Zombie's, a restaurant operated by the Youth of Today Society.

Durrant had to serve the hotel's 18 residents eviction notices recently when the Yukon government failed to cough up her request for a down payment on the $1.7-million property.

While the residents live upstairs in the building, the hostel continues to operate out of the bottom floor.

Residents pay $700 for a single room or $800 for a double room. The $700 is $50 more than the average monthly rent in Whitehorse at $650.

If the group could buy the property, it would be able to charge more affordable rent, she noted this morning.

She said she didn't ask the government for $1.7 million, which was the asking price for the property, but rather for enough to make a down payment to buy or lease the site. She noted even $200,000 would have been enough to make a down payment.

'We need a down payment,' she said.

The youth will have to leave the hotel by May 1.

After months of detailing the benefits of its rehabilitation program for youth and going through the costs of various aspects of the programs the Youth of Today Society offers, Durrant said it boggles her mind that the government won't support the program.

In the last two territorial elections, Durrant has run under the Yukon Party banner, which makes the situation very difficult for her.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Health and Social Services Minister Peter Jenkins said the government has committed more than $100,000 for youth programs offered at the Blue Feather Youth Centre, operated by the Youth of Today.

However, he said, the government is not in a position to pay $1.7 million for the Roadhouse.

'We are in a position to provide them with the upfront funding in excess of $100,000 as well we agreed to purchase programming space from the Blue Feather for the youth that come into their venue,' he said.

Durrant noted it costs the government more to send youth Outside for drug and alcohol rehabilitation treatment, often with few results.

Often, youth will go out for eight weeks' treatment, only to return to the same environment they left and go back to the drugs and alcohol.

Durrant said the society connects youth with addictions to counsellors, but it also can help with housing through its Roadhouse program and can help provide jobs through a number of its programs such as Zombies and art programs.

In addition to his work at the Roadhouse, Jackson also works on the group's mural paintings and graphic arts.

It was the work programs that have helped Jackson decrease his drinking. He recalled that when he first became involved at the youth centre, he was coming in every day hung over.

Instead of speaking to him in a normal tone, Durrant would communicate with him by yelling. She also got him to work in the grease pit at Zombie's for a day.

He didn't drink for a long time after that experience.

'Our therapy is unique,' Durrant said.

Jackson also finds himself now wanting to buy things for his room rather than spending his money on alcohol.

While Jackson has found a place to stay after May 1, others are still wondering where they can go.

One young man living at the Roadhouse was sent there to live as part of his probation order.

'It was a test,' said the youth, whose name cannot be published.

The probation order gave him a chance to prove himself in a partially-supervised situation.

'It's got me back into wanting to live on my own,' he said in an interview at the Roadhouse.

Living at the Roadhouse has allowed him to get what he terms 'free counselling' from people like Durrant and others who have gone through some of the same problems he's facing.

He's found counsellors he's dealt with in the past don't really have any idea what he's going through. At the Roadhouse, he said, he's received good advice from those who know where he's coming from.

Jenkins said the government can deal with youth who are sent to the Roadhouse through the courts through other venues.

He also pointed out a number of youth in government care who could stay in group homes are choosing to live at the Roadhouse.

The government is not in a position to pay for two homes for those youth, he said.

The youth society began operating the Roadhouse last November. Since then, the territorial government, the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Kwanlin Dun and Champagne-Aishihik first nations and the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society of Yukon have referred 38 people to the housing program.

'We're filling a need in the community,' Durrant said.