Non-profit taking applications from chronically homeless to live in 17-unit apartment complex

Friday, 15 November 2024 14:46

By Juliann Fraser

Kelsey Hall attends an open house at 408 Alexander, where 17 apartment units will house the homeless.

Safe At Home will determine who can move in on December 1

As temperatures drop and the housing crisis continues in Yukon’s capital, it wasn’t surprising that an open house with 17 empty apartment units at 408 Alexander Street attracted many of the city’s homeless.

Just a few steps away from the beleaguered downtown Emergency Shelter, the government-owned building at 408 Alexander Street has 10 two-bedroom, 5 one-bedroom, and 2 bachelor apartments.

Kelsey Hall walks around a gleaming white one-bedroom unit and imagines himself living there.

“I got evicted out of my last apartment because I let the wrong person move in, and I’ve been at the Shelter for about nine months,” said Hall. "It’s not the greatest; too many people all the time, especially since there has been a bedbug and scabies outbreak – I suffered through that.”

Open drug use in the smoking area outside the Shelter has been triggering, Hall added, as he is trying to stay clean.

The Government of Yukon relocated the building’s previous tenants in the public housing unit in order to introduce what it calls a "supportive housing program". The program has been outsourced to Safe At Home, a non-profit society that has been providing solutions to homelessness in the Yukon for the past few years. Safe at Home will provide 24-hour reception services to support tenants and screen visitors. It will also determine who gets to live there after reviewing the applications. Hall is hopeful that he will be one of the building's new residents.

“Me, I have a disability. I got half a foot a couple years ago because of frostbite and being diabetic. I think I qualify.”

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