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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The old Kitikmeot boarding home on 52 Street may become the city's first transitional home for women. Lyda Fuller, executive director of the YWCA, said she is crunching numbers to look at the viability of purchasing the 9,000-square-foot, 15-bedroom facility in downtown Yellowknife.

The former Kitikmeot Boarding home on 52 Street is being looked at by the YWCA and the city's homelessness coalition, as a location for a future transitional home for women. Lyda Fuller, executive director of the YWCA, said the home is the next priority for the homelessness coalition. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

"The homeless coalition has had this as their next sort of agenda item after the Bailey House," said Fuller. She said money set aside for the initiative last fiscal year was carried over for the project.

Dayle Handy, the city's homelessness co-ordinator, said there is about $380,000 in federal money from the homelessness partnering strategy being put toward the project.

Handy and Fuller both said there are limited housing options for single women requiring assistance in Yellowknife. The YWCA operates emergency and transitional housing for families out of Rockhill apartments; the Alison McAteer house operates a 12-bed family violence shelter, while the Centre for Northern Families has three beds for women.

"We believe there is actually quite a large need because there are many women that are residing in emergency shelters that are actually designed for short-term emergency stay," said Handy.

She said a short-term shelter isn't the type of stable support these women need.

"It's not home," she said, adding the transitional home would allow tenants to access life-skills and other programming to help them get back on their feet.

Fuller said there are many women around the city who would benefit from a longer-term facility.

"I think there actually are as many women as men," said Fuller.

"Sometimes the women aren't as visible."

She said the home could operate like the Bailey House - the 32-bed transitional home for men, owned and operated by the Salvation Army.

The building the YWCA is interested in is owned by Enokhok Development Corporation in Cambridge Bay, and Fuller said it is asking $1 million for the building.

She said the money from the homelessness coalition could be used as a down payment on the building, with revenue from the home's tenants paying off the building's mortgage, as well as utilities, insurance and other operational costs.

Fuller said ideally, she would love to see a home open up in the fall, before the cold weather hits, but the problem is how to fund staff.

"Where the Bailey House has 32 beds, this only has 15. So there aren't enough beds to generate enough revenue to have any staffing," she said.

Fuller added she is reluctant to put in an offer to purchase the building if she doesn't yet know where staffing money would come from.

She said she will talk about combining with other organizations around town to see if there is a possibility that while they'd house certain clients, while the organization could help pay for services. Fuller added the building will also need some renovations. "It's been used fairly well," she said.

Handy said the homelessness coalition is looking at technical and structural assessments on the building. "We are in the research stages still," she said.

"There hasn't been any kind of dollars negotiation."

Handy said she thought the building was in an ideal spot. "It's still close to all amenities downtown and within walking distance to different programming the women can access."