The territory officially cut the ribbon on its newest tiny homes project on Sixth Avenue on Friday afternoon.

Five of the city’s most vulnerable are slated to make the move into the $800,000 sites by around the end of March.

That move will be facilitated by the Blood Ties Four Directions Centre, the organization behind the project.

It will begin a staggered move into the five sites (one home of which was already built years ago).

“I think we’re excited to be in the next stage now, to have people (go) into the units,” said Patricia Bacon, Blood Ties’ executive director.

Among those on hand for the ribbon-cutting, Bacon has been involved with the project since at least the last year and a half.

“Homelessness’ cause has been mired in myth and misunderstandings, and the homeless have been victims of hatred, stigma and violence,” she told a crowd gathered on Sixth Avenue and Jarvis Street.

While she acknowledged it’s easy for people to say “why can’t we just build more housing, for those of us in the know, we know that the fix isn’t as simple as a hammer and a nail.”

Making the dream a reality has been a process, to say the least.

“I learned resolving homelessness is about relationships and a lot of coffee,” Bacon smiled, referencing the lengths to which the board and her went to secure funding, for instance.

The project received a $100,000 nod from the territorial government through its Community Development Fund while Ottawa pitched in $100,000 through its Homelessness Partnering Strategy and a number of private donors made other contributions.

In partnership with the feds, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and the Yukon Housing Corp. (YHC), there was an additional $200,000 put toward making the homes what they are today.

The city also granted just under $15,000 last summer to help cover demolition and development costs, with Bacon noting a big chunk of the $800,000 all-in price included buying the land.

Friday afternoon’s event came complete with a chance to tour some of the houses.

They feature a washroom (with toilet and shower), kitchen (with microwave and sink) and loft-style bed up at the top accessible via the stairs – all within a 200-square-foot site.

Noting they were furnished, Bacon explained the original design was fairly similar to what she was standing before, save for a couple minor changes like raising the roof on some of the homes.

“For people staying for long-term, not being able to stand up in the loft, that can get tiresome,” she said.

Those expected to move into the site are to be Blood Ties clients, after the group does an intake period and assesses what their housing needs are as well as other social challenges (like accessing health care, for example).

That’s important, Bacon said, because some who she’s shown the sites to think it’s too small or doesn’t meet their needs in other ways.

That’s why there will be a “sweet spot” the group will look for on the scoring of the vulnerability assessment tool it will use to determine who is best suited for that type of home.

“We should not be thinking a one-size-fits-all is the right model for every person who is precariously housed,” she explained, noting it may be a good choice for only a select few Blood Ties serves.

For instance, that includes those who want to have a sense of mastery and control of their space, “but not too much space that it presents challenges around guest management and those kinds of things.”

She also acknowledged that a 20-unit apartment building, on the other hand, with shared hallways and greater traffic may not be the best call for others, depending on their situation.

The group expects there to be a mix of men and women at the site, with the goal of integrating residents in to the larger city’s community.

“About five on one lot is good, but we’re not necessarily feeling like we should congest and put all people who are poor or use drugs in one big apartment group.

“That’s kind of ghettoizing people and it further marginalizes them.

“All people belong in all communities, and the tiny house community is part of the bigger (one),” she smiled.

The centre first built a tiny house, dubbed the Steve Cardiff House, in 2012, with the aim of providing safe, secure and transition housing for a client up to a year.

That house was eventually put into storage, but the board quickly began to think of ways to further its mission and support others in a similar situation.

That was after 2016, which saw the structure house five different people but sit on an undeveloped lot not owned by Blood Ties.

Put into storage until a more permanent home could be found, it will now be nestled neatly between four other homes to create the Steve Cardiff Tiny House Community.

Community Services Minister John Streicker said it was great to see it become a reality after recalling first touring the site when it was full of pits in its early stages.

“It’s really nice to see things happening,” he said, “where we can see a place that’s going to be more inclusive and allow us to embrace the diversity of our community and support people where they are at.”

It was also a fitting tribute to a man who did so much for the community, he said.

Cardiff was a Yukon NDP MLA who died in a highway collision south of Whitehorse in the summer of 2011.

Meanwhile, Yukon MP Larry Bagnell, representing the feds, joined Kobayashi and Zedda (KZA) co-owner Tony Zedda at the event as well.

“They say a community is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable,” Bagnell said, “and the fact there’s so many people in -16 C shows how great the Yukon is in that, and how much you care.

“Nothing is more important than a home, I’m sure most of you know,” the MP added.

He reminded onlookers of Ottawa’s $40-billion National Housing Strategy unveiled in 2017, which aims to reduce chronic homelessness by 50 per cent in the lead-up to the decade after.

Meanwhile, KZA, the Whitehorse-based architecture and planning firm behind the design of the homes, acknowledged it had been a fun, difficult but rewarding process.

“This is an example ... when a group of people called a community come together and try to think about their fellow human being and how to help them find housing,” Zedda smiled.

“It’s through this effort of the community that we have this today,” he added. It can open the door for other projects down the road to be considered as well, he added.

With the end goal to have the homes filled come the end of March, Bacon added that the moves could begin as early as February.