'It's a desperately needed program': homeless find housing in Behchoko

Arnold Koyina won't sleep on a friend's couch tonight.

The 49-year-old had been crashing at friends' houses in Behchoko, N.W.T., ever since his father's home burned down five years ago, he said.

Earlier this month, he finally got a place of his own — thanks to a new program helping house the community's homeless.

"[The] first day I move in and I can't sleep," Koyina said, laughing at how hot his new housing unit was.

Since moving in, he said it's gotten easier to sleep, though it's still hard getting used to having a place of his own.

Koyina and three other people experiencing homelessness in Behchoko are to get a home through the territorial government's Northern Pathways to Housing program.

The program provides tenants with a furnished home. The unit shown to CBC in Behchoko was a small but cozy space, with a kitchen, washer and dryer, bathroom and a TV. 

'It's a desperately needed program'

The territorial government partnered with the Tlicho Leagia Ts'iili Ko Rae-Edzo Friendship Centre on the fourplex in Behchoko. Behchoko is the third community to get this program, after similar housing complexes opened in Fort Simpson and Aklavik.

"It's a desperately needed program, and we need lots more," said Joe Pintarics, the centre's executive director.

Pintarics said last year, his centre found around 125 people were experiencing homelessness in Behchoko, and he suspects the number is much higher.

Many like Koyina end up crashing on people's couches, he said, or staying in homes that aren't safe because they don't have other options.

"Having that number of people [homeless] in a community this size is just almost catastrophic in proportions," he said.

Behchoko's population was just over 2,000 in 2018, according to the N.W.T. Bureau of Statistics.

Support for tenants

The friendship centre plans to provide the new tenants with extra support — from helping them manage their money to planning a daily routine, having a healthy diet, and even maintaining a more supportive and productive social life.

Pintarics said it will also help the new tenants access addictions treatment programs if they need them, and get them to and from counselling sessions and medical appointments.

He said many of Behchoko's homeless are struggling because of the lasting scars from residential schools, colonialism, and racism in the North. Giving people a sense of security is the first step to helping them heal.

"They need to know where they belong, they need to know where to live, what is the space that's theirs and theirs alone that they can call home," he said.

"Unless you can give them that then they will not be attending to the healing because they're too busy with basic survival needs."

'This is the best we can do' for now

Behchoko Chief Clifford Daniels said there are many people on the waitlist for housing in his community, and public housing isn't cutting it.

"Lots of single people are homeless and struggling with social issues, so they're the ones being targeted now," he said.

"It's very good to have this type of transitional housing available for them ... hopefully this all works out so we can do more, similar programs, or find something better."

Daniels said the Tlicho government is considering a home ownership program to help community members finance their own houses, which would in turn free up more public housing for everyone else.

For now, he said this program is "the best we can do."

As for Koyina, he's looking forward to finding a job, and maybe a girlfriend. But first he's excited to go back to sleep in his own bed.