SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
To the average onlooker, Russell Hamilton looks like a typical father as he pushes his baby daughter down the sidewalks of Yellowknife.
Russell Hamilton and his daughter Aliyah start their nightly walk around the city May 28. For the last few months, Hamilton has been staying with friends and family but has had no permanent residence. - Meagan Leonard/NNSL photo |
Squinting into the afternoon sunlight, 15-month-old Aliyah sips her juice and grins toothily over the edge of her stroller as they make their way up Franklin Avenue.
It's 5 p.m and the pair plan to walk for another four or five hours until fatigue brings them to the couch of a friend or family member they haven't stayed with yet this week. If that fails, they will camp in Fred Henne park - spending another long night before Hamilton gets up for work at 8 a.m and the whole cycle begins again.
"My daughter and I have been on the streets for a few months now," he said, when Yellowknifer joined him on one of their walks. "We have no permanent address."
His daughter stays with friends and family while he works.
Despite working full time as a carpenter, the single father has been struggling to find a place to live after a brief stint in jail last year. When he was arrested, Hamilton had to give up his apartment with Northern Property Real Estate Investment Trust and was slapped with $4,000 in rental fees not paid - he says because of this, he has been unable to find an apartment with the company.
"I was trying to make repayments with them so I could possibly get back in, but no one has gotten back to me," he said.
The mother is unable to look after her daughter for personal reasons, says Hamilton.
Although Hamilton says he is now clean and under orders not to use drugs or alcohol, he said he feels his past reputation has caused him to become blacklisted across the city.
"Not only am I under court conditions not to do any drugs or alcohol, I also choose not to do any drugs and alcohol," he said.
As a single father, one of his only options is Rockhill transitional housing, for which he has been on the wait list since April. Rockhill, run by YWCA, provides three months of accommodation for homeless families along with support workers to help with issues such as debt, addictions and domestic violence.
Yellowknife YWCA executive director Lyda Fuller is familiar with Hamilton's case and said a history of drug use would not prevent anyone from getting a place at Rockhill.
"We've had so many people with drug use in this building," she said. "That's not a reason to reject anyone."
She added public housing shortages in the city mean the organization is inundated with cases equal in severity to Hamilton's.
"All of the 100 people on our waiting list have kids and there is no alternate option," she said. "We are the alternative, we're the last at the bottom of the ladder. We take the next person who's on the waiting list who we know is still looking, who's in the most desperate situation."
Those people are on the waiting list up to a year, she added.
Many single mothers seek refuge at the Centre for Northern Families or Lynn's Place but the only men's emergency shelter is at the Salvation Army, which does not accept children, nor does Bailey House transitional home for men, also operated by the Salvation Army.
The men's transitional home does not accept anyone under the age of 18 for safety reasons, according to community service worker Belinda Lusinga. If Hamilton came to them with his daughter, they would have to turn him away.
"We wouldn't accept that," she said. "Some of the people here, they do come in slightly intoxicated and that's not a good situation
for any child."
When asked to suggest an alternative place a single father could go, there was a long pause.
"That's a hard question," she said.
Hamilton said he has also contacted Yellowknife Housing Authority for help - a subsidiary of NWT Housing Corporation.
Housing corp. offers emergency funding for those who are homeless, public housing accommodations, transitional rent supplements and mortgage financing for first-time home owners.
He said he is still waiting to hear from housing corp. about his options. Housing corporation spokesperson Cara Bryant could not confirm if Hamilton was on the public housing waiting list, which ranges from eight people to 107, depending on how many bedrooms they're waiting for.
For now, Hamilton says he is taking things one day at a time and is grateful friends and family have done all that they have to keep him off the street but worries about the lack of stability in Aliyah's life.
"There's no options for single fathers who are trying to do right by their children," he said. "I'm running out of options."
Yellowknifer contacted Health and Social Services to determine what assistance is available for someone in Hamilton's situation but the department was not prepared to
comment by press time.
Fact file
NWT Housing Corporation waiting list numbers
Yellowknife
1 bedroom: 107
2 bedroom: 60
3 bedroom: 19
4 bedroom: 8
Source: NWT Housing
Corporation
