Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 08/02) - The city and territorial government are helping residents on 43rd Street.

"We have a couple of opportunities to relocate them that we're currently working on," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem.

Van Tighem said efforts to help have been in progress since last year.

Four trailers on that street will soon need to be moved or destroyed for a condominium developer to begin work this summer. One more trailer will be evicted next year.

According to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation (NWTHC), work has begun to identify help for the residents.

"The corporation's only involvement is that we've agreed to counsel the clients who are in those units," said NWTHC manager of policy and implementation Greg Barton. "We're working with the city to examine solutions and try to identify if the clients can access any of our programs for the purposes of moving their residence," he added. "At this point we can't commit to whether they're eligible or not."

Jim Cheyne, one of the trailer owners, said he still doesn't see any real possibility for change.

"The Housing Corp. has already told us they'll move our trailers for us," he said. "The $64 question is, move them where? It's in the city's hands to speed up the zoning."

There are some available locations, but Cheyne said he has been told that changing the zoning might take three or four months. The trailers have to be removed by April 15. "That's too late for us," he said.