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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
YWCA's Rockhill Apartments-based clothing exchange program closed its doors Monday amid frustrations over donations coming in that were essentially trash.

Julie Green, YWCA Yellowknife's director of community relations, said the Rockhill Apartments-based clothing exchange closed Monday because they need the space for other programming and are tired of receiving donations that are essentially trash. - Kevin Allerston/NNSL photo

Julie Green, YWCA Yellowknife's director of community relations, said residents have other inexpensive options for getting used clothing, including the Salvation Army Thrift Store and St. Patrick Parish flea market. She said other purposes will be found for the apartment unit, which costs $1,150 a month to rent, that housed the exchange.

"We have limited space for programming and we needed the space that the clothing exchange was occupying for those purposes," said Green.

"So part of that room will be a classroom and part of it will be an office that a nurse will use to see tenants here at our, sort of, walk-in clinic."

The classroom component will include classes on parenting, cooking, budgeting and literacy skills to help tenants in the emergency Rockhill shelter transition into a more stable housing situation.

Part of the reason for ending the clothing program, she said, was the poor condition of many of the donations and the way in which they were donated.

"Some of the stuff we got was really good," said Green.

"People took great care to launder and fold their clothing and bring it down, but, to be honest, sometimes we got garbage and then we would end up having to take it to the landfill, paying somebody to take it, plus the tipping fee, so the donations were quite variable ... they went from really great to really bad."

On Tuesday morning, Green came in to work to see garbage bags full of clothes and a couch that was missing three casters.

"It just looked like a giant mess. Nobody's going to want it," said Green.

"It seemed seasonal, we would receive more of that kind of thing in the garage sale season, with a lot of garage-sale leftovers."

Green couldn't explain why, but said most Rockhill tenants didn't take advantage of the clothing exchange, although members of the general public would.

"The amount of donations we had here at the exchange was well in excess of the demand by the people living here," said Green.

"So we decided that all in all, we had better use for the room and it wasn't a one of a kind service, people could get clothes elsewhere," said Green.

There are 39 apartments at Rockhill, 32 of which are currently occupied.

While the clothing exchange is a thing of the past, the Coats for Kids program held in the fall will continue, said Green.

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