They are the newest victims of the city's housing crunch. Residents of five mobile homes set up on 43rd Street have been told to pack up and get out. The reason? A Hay River developer plans to build condominiums where the trailers now sit.

Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 30/02) - Jim Cheyne's trailer is home. He has smoked at this kitchen table, shuffled down these short halls, listened to the same droning police scanner since 1993.

Unable to work and with limited mobility since surgery for a spinal abscess in 1989, Cheyne bought the 14-by-69 foot, two-bedroom mobile home in 1993 for $29,000.

Sharon Canning is one year away from paying off her mortgage on 4924 43rd Street. If she can't sell the trailer, she says she'll burn it. - Nathan VanderKlippe/NNSL photo

But by April 15, Cheyne's home -- and three other trailers beside him -- will be gone. The lots they are renting have been sold to a firm from Hay River, which plans to convert the property into condominiums. Cheyne doesn't want to move. He has to. And he has nowhere to go.

It's not the first time Cheyne has faced eviction. He was kicked out of Bartam Trailer Court in 1993, but found a new rental lot on 43 Street land owned by Jack Decker.

He was looking for some assurance of stability and found out through acquaintances that Decker had no plans to sell it. Ever.

That was enough for him, and he moved in.

Since then, Cheyne has paid off his trailer and kept up his $300 monthly lot rent. With the savings he had from his years of work and his $900 monthly disability cheque, Cheyne was able to lead a fairly comfortable life.

That is, until August of last year.

That was when the property was suddenly purchased by AFM Holdings, a Hay River company wholly owned by Sandra Lester and Glenn Smart.

The trailer dwellers found out about the change when Lester sent them a letter. Seeing the writing on the wall, the residents asked Lester if she was making other plans for the property.

She said she didn't know.

She did know in the last days of December, when residents of four of the trailers were issued an eviction notice.

AFM did everything by the book, giving proper notice of eviction. And Lester's idea is to help ease the pain of Yellowknife's housing crunch.

"These are very old mobile homes, and most of them really don't meet current code," she said. "Yellowknife desperately needed more housing, and this property is zoned so that we can put 14 housing units on where there's only six on there now."

"I know it's hard for people when things change, especially if it's your home," said Lester.

"We're not ogres. We didn't want to hurt these people."

Desperate without options

But legality -- or even altruism -- doesn't soften the blow for those being displaced.

"I'll miss this place," said Cheyne.

Helen Lawson, who has lived there since 1988, is one of those who will soon leave their 43rd St. homes.

She is a senior who receives money from the Canada Pension Plan and works part-time at Click It.

"The way things stand right now, unless we can find a buyer willing to move the trailers to his or her land, we may well simply have to walk away from our homes," she wrote in a letter to Yellowknifer.

"Our situation is not unique. ... All in all, it would appear that lower- and middle-income earners, possibly long-term Yellowknifers, are being sacrificed for those newcomers arriving to work, predominantly in the diamond mines, who can afford to pay the higher rents now in vogue."

With only a few months before she will be homeless, Lawson despairs of finding another place to stay. She doubts she can sell her mobile home and is intimidated by rising rent prices in the city.

"I simply can't afford to buy a lot in Yellowknife, move the trailer and get it up to code," she said.

One year from paying off mortgage

Sharon Canning owns one of the mobile homes, although she doesn't live there. She has one year left on the mortgage for her trailer, which she is now renting out.

If she can't sell, she says she would rather burn it than give it away.

"We'll have a nice bonfire and invite the city," she said.

"Needless to say, we've been doing a lot of searching and going to the city."

"But there's no land available," she said. "Residents of Yellowknife are losing their land while somebody from Hay River comes in and kicks us off our land and builds housing for other people. We have many sleepless nights over this situation, but what do we do? It's a sad situation."

Cheyne recognizes that AFM is within its rights to do whatever it wishes with the land. "There's not much we can do. It's her land. When you own the land you can do what you want with it," he said.

If all else fails, he added, "I'll throw my clothes in my car and head her south. Maybe I'll get lucky and win a lottery."

He does have some options. He is looking into applying at Aven Court, and is examining options with the Yellowknife Housing Authority.

But neither has any vacancies and both have lengthy waiting lists.

And so the residents are faced with one bleak, heartrending reality.

In the words of Helen Lawson, "In essence, some of us will soon no longer have our own place to call home."