About $600,000 from a federal program called the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative is going towards operating and maintaining a recently opened 17-unit supportive housing program located at 408 Alexander St., across from the Whitehorse Emergency Shelter in the Yukon’s capital.
Another $400,000 went towards building renovations. That’s out of a $1-million investment over two years from the feds.
When asked if there are any encampments in Whitehorse, Kate Mechan, executive director of Safe at Home Society, said 18 households are experiencing "unsheltered homelessness" as of the end of January, according to the by-name list.
Safe at Home is leasing the Alexander Street building from the Yukon Housing Corporation while the housing program itself draws funding from the Yukon government’s Department of Health and Social Services. The building went into operation in December 2024.
“This will support the implementation of the community encampment response plan in Whitehorse and immediately provide additional support to people living without homes,” Hanley said.
“Eliminating chronic homelessness will take a coordinated effort, and the federal government is committed to working with communities and partners, including veteran organizations, Indigenous partners and housing providers, to achieve this important goal.”
He noted that some other municipalities see more “discrete” encampments.
Mechan said Whitehorse doesn’t typically see encampments or large-scale groups of people living in congregated settings outdoors, like the hundreds gathered in other cities.
But it does see people staying in RVs, sleeping in cars and sometimes camping outside, she said, adding that this is a tough time of year to be talking about encampments given the cold climate.
She said funding through streams like this one could help service providers and governments be more proactive, in addition to providing supportive housing, when spring hits and hotels give tenants the boot to make way for tourists. She wonders how the Yukon can get ahead of that this year.
“Every year it slaps us in the face,” she said.
An email statement from Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, the federal housing minister, indicates that Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon have signed agreements under the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative. Deals have also been made with select municipalities in Ontario and Saskatchewan, per the housing minister.
The money is for the provinces, territories and municipalities to implement locally created encampment response plans, as Erskine-Smith noted in the statement.
More provinces and territories are expected to sign on.
The politicians at the Feb. 17 press conference highlighted plans that support the work in Whitehorse such as the Yukon Housing Corporation’s five-year plan, the Yukon government’s downtown safety plan and the federal Reaching Home program which involves $5 billion over nine years to address homelessness in Canada.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
