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The phoenix will rise at 810 Wheeler St.
At 810 Wheeler St., the name says it all.
Photo by Vince Fedoroff
HOUSING REPLACES HAVOC - Jim Kenyon (left), the minister responsible for the Yukon Housing Corp., and Todd Hardy, president of Habitat for Humanity in the Yukon, discuss the planned housing development at Monday morning's news conference on Wheeler Street.
At 810 Wheeler St., the name says it all.
Where once there stood a known drug house which saw frequent traffic is now a sign on the vacant lot with the title of the project for the new homes on the site: the Phoenix Rising.
The initiative is a collaboration of Habitat for Humanity and the Yukon Housing Corp. It will see homes built on the property for families unable to afford a home through a traditional mortgage.
As Habitat for Humanity president Todd Hardy told a press conference Monday: “The project’s called Phoenix Rising because out of the ashes of tragedy will be something of great hope and beauty, and that’s what we’re aiming for.”
The housing corporation purchased the property from its former owner, Natalie Stinson of Edmonton (who inherited it after her mother died earlier this year) for $163,000 and donated it to Habitat for Humanity.
The agreement between the corporation and Habitat for Humanity will see the homes built to SuperGreen standards, with the corporation paying for the additional costs that come with building to the new standards.
Current estimates put the extra construction costs between $18,000 and $20,000 for each unit, but that will largely depend on the design of the new homes, said Jim Kenyon, the minister responsible for the housing corporation.
“The good part of that, however, is you don’t need a conventional heating system,” he said.
The environmental standards reduce heating costs to 20 per cent of what it would normally cost with the higher construction costs expected to be made back in heating savings in five years, Kenyon said.
While two government staff houses in Watson Lake have already been built to SuperGreen standards, this will mark the first project in Whitehorse to be built to the new standards.
“It’ll be a model and showcase for this type of construction,” Kenyon said.
Along with opening up homeownership to those that may not otherwise be able to afford a home, the project will also provide training opportunities for those in construction.
“It’s a good investment; a lot of different positive outcomes,” Kenyon said. “We hope there’ll be other positive outcomes as we go along.
“The construction project itself will provide training to contractors (and workers) throughout Whitehorse and the territory as they learn to build to the standards.”
Both Kenyon and Hardy, who is also the territory’s NDP leader and the MLA for the neighbourhood (Whitehorse Centre), praised Stinson.
Stinson had the former house demolished in July after it had been boarded up and residents evicted by RCMP under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhood (SCAN) legislation in June.
SCAN uses civil law to evict tenants from properties where there are illegal activities such as prostitution, drug activity or bootlegging taking place.
When it was knocked down, Stinson issued a statement to neighbours in the area expressing sympathy for those who were affected by the activity in the house.
“It is my hope that the demolition of this property will bring some closure to a very sad story,” she wrote in her message to the community.
On Monday, Kenyon pointed out Stinson likely could have gotten a lot more for the property if she had put it on the open market.
“When she was approached from both Yukon Housing and Habitat, she made a decision that this was a good way, a good ending to something that was a lot of problems,” Hardy said.
By building a new multi-family development, it’s hoped the project will help rejuvenate the downtown, bringing more families to the neighbourhood.
While there’s been recent opposition to multi-family development in the Old Town neighbourhood, Hardy said, Habitat for Humanity will be working with area residents to come up with a design that fits the neighbourhood.
“These are going to be very much each individual home with their own access,” he said, noting it will likely be more of a townhouse-type development rather than the apartment-style condos that are being built downtown.
Design and planning will happen over the winter with construction likely starting next June.
Habitat will go through their standard application process for prospective homeowners.
The Habitat program uses volunteer labour (including that of the recipient family) and donations of materials to build houses. The houses are sold at no profit and financed with no-interest mortgages where payments go into a revolving fund to use on future builds.
This will mark the third build in the Yukon for the local Habitat branch.
Already response to the project has been positive, with Hardy having spoken to two neighbours and word spreading at a neighbourhood barbecue held Sunday.
Downtown Residents Association president John Pattimore said Monday that while the demolition of the house has already made a huge difference for the better in the neighbourhood, many would like to see new families move in.
As word leaked out Sunday of the site becoming a Habitat home, there was a lot of excitement from neighbours, said Roxanne Livingstone, the previous president of the residents’ group.
“We want to see children. We want children back in this neighbourhood like we used to have,” she said.
As for design, Pattimore said he’d like to see a development that would have the look of a house, address concerns that have been raised in the past about maximum structure height and include landscaping that flows well with that of the small park next door to the property.
He also noted though, it’s important for all residents to have a say in what’s built on the site.
Many residents of the area have already started talking about volunteering on the build.
“People want to get involved,” he said.
Arn Anderson
Oct 7, 2008 at 6:07 pm
One can sum Whitehorse in an address; 810 Wheeler. How long did this place has been known as a drug house, only the RCMP knows, as they let it operate for years on end.
Now a new hope can be built there, but is it really hope. Why not build a insite shoot up place instead? This seems like the logic that goes with Whitehorse. Keep people locked up while the criminals run free. I only wonder if the house is going to get a good family, its no longer the issue of familys getting good houses, but its vice versa now.
Oh well what can you do, I wont be surprised if the house turns into a grow op like so many of the 500000 homes in copper ridge.