Advocacy group asks Watson Lake, Yukon, residents about housing needs

A local advocacy group has sent out hundreds of questionnaires to people in Watson Lake, Yukon, to try to get a clearer picture of that community's housing needs.

Safe At Home also held an open house in the community on Thursday night to hear directly from residents about homelessness, housing insecurity, and possible solutions. 

"There's a lot of folks in the community that are homeless. A lot of it may not be obvious," said Angela Miller, housing coordinator with Safe at Home. 

She's new to the organization but not to Watson Lake, where she's lived for 28 years.

"Certainly there's folks staying on people's couches. You know, I know of a few folks that are staying in places that I probably wouldn't want my worst enemy to stay in," she said.

"We don't have enough housing in Watson Lake. We don't have enough appropriate housing in Watson Lake."

Local resident Jennifer Porter came to Thursday's open house in the community curling lounge, just to "check it out." She said she sees too many people struggling.

"For a small town of Watson Lake, we shouldn't have as many homelessness people as we do," Porter said.

Ruby Johnny, also at Thursday's gathering, said Watson Lake really needs a sort of soup kitchen. She said she didn't want to call it a "homeless shelter." 

"I want to call it a home for people that don't have anywhere to go. It could be a gathering place, you could have cards there, you could have crib there, you could have a TV going ... connection is so important," Johnny said.

Miller believes that a lot of men in the community seem to fall through the cracks. She says there's no men's shelter or transition home, nor are there enough smaller residences suitable for a single person.

Safe at Home sent out 300 questionnaires to mailboxes throughout the community and the organization hopes to get as many back by the end of December. That will help inform a report that will be put together about the community's housing challenges — though Miller says that ultimately, "it's not about the report."

"It's going to be about the feedback, you know, and sort of where we take that."

"I feel like a lot of the professionals are in silos and not really working together ... I'm going to hopefully be the catalyst that kind of gets all those silos talking and working together so we can end homelessness in our community."