SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A tenant at Lynn's Place was kicked out last month after having a bad experience at the recently opened transitional house for women.

Susie Komak said she was ostracized by staff for not participating in the facility's programs. She was evicted from the transitional housing building and is living and working at the Centre for Northern Families. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo

"It felt like I went back to residential school and there was a bully on the left of me and to the right was the teacher and I didn't have any recourse in doing anything," said Susie Komak "It wasn't very healthy for me, mentally. It didn't help matters. It just made me feel worse."

She was one of two tenants at Lynn's Place who were asked to leave recently, according to the YWCA Yellowknife.

Lyda Fuller, executive director, said the organization gambled on trying to help a couple of people who hadn't done well elsewhere and it didn't pay off.

"People might be asked to leave Lynn's Place if they weren't paying rent and after repeated attempts that hadn't changed, or if they were interrupting the common enjoyment of the other tenants to use the premises," said Fuller.

Komak said her bad experience at Lynn's Place contributed to a nervous breakdown that put her in the hospital for 10 days.

"The day I got out of the hospital I found this eviction notice under my door," she said. "I didn't realize I was getting evicted until the day I got out of the hospital."

The reasons she was given for her eviction, she said, were an alleged racial slur against a security guard and having parties in her room, both of which Komak denies.

She said she was ostracized in the building for not wanting to take part in staff programs.

"I wasn't speaking with them or talking about my personal problems," she said. "I was just living there and I don't want everybody to know my personal problems. It was none of their business. I was seeing a counsellor, why should I talk to somebody else?"

Fuller said the YWCA puts in significant effort to make the transitional housing work for its tenants.

"If it's an issue that's causing considerable distress within the building or there's a safety concern, we would act more quickly than other kinds of issues," she said. "We work hard to help women make changes."

She said one of the women asked to leave had already wanted to go to her home community and the other had been met with eight times before the eviction notice.

Arlene Hache, an anti-poverty activist, said the bigger problem is that transitional housing doesn't submit to normal landlord tenancy rules.

"Lynn's Place . has a multi-million dollar building mortgage-free and core funding to provide support to people with challenges, so that's kind of their job," said Hache.

The YWCA charges a reduced rental rate and is excluded from rental legislation that reviews eviction cases.

"Private market landlords also have challenges," said Hache. "They're all in housing, they all have challenges, and only the private market landlords are accountable to the rental officer."

She called it the "ultimate hypocrisy" that the YWCA purports to be defenders of women and combating homelessness when it creates homelessness as well.

"To me it's just hypocritical and bizarre that the champions of homelessness say landlords should be accountable and prevent people from becoming homeless, but the transitional house providers are also the ones who make people homeless," said Hache.

Fuller said transitional housing should not fall under the Residential Tenancies Act specifically because it's transitional, not permanent. On average each tenant stays about a year and throughout their tenancy YWCA tries to help them find permanent housing.

"We would argue that maybe there is other legislation that needs to be looked at specific to transitional housing, but we don't think it falls within the Residential Tenancies Act because of the permanent nature that act speaks to," she said.

She disputed the claim the YWCA creates homelessness, saying one woman was clear with her intention to go to her home community and the other went back to the Centre for Northern Families.