The Coast High Country Inn (HCI) could be changing hands if an ambitious proposal for the Safe at Home Society to take it over succeeds.

The society is working on an application to the City of Whitehorse for their funding under the federal Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) 2.0 Cities Stream to convert the High Country Inn on Fourth Avenue into 55 units of permanent supportive housing.

The society said in a news release Friday “the aim of the project is to provide unique opportunities to a mixed demographic of individuals who are currently homeless or at-risk of homelessness with urgent, stable, and secure housing along with support services.

“The project will attend to the support and safety needs of specific at-risk groups with a separate section for young adults (18-24), allocation of 75 per cent of all suites for people who are Indigenous and a minimum of 50 per cent of all units for women.”

The inn is currently owned and operated by the Northern Vision Development corporation. Michael Hale, the company’s president and chief operating officer, talked to the Star Friday afternoon.

He said the property is being sold for somewhat less than the value of the last market appraisal.

“I can’t share the appraisal, because it is proprietary and includes a different asset in the same document. However, I can say that hotel is being sold for roughly $10 million.

“The appraisal is from 2019 and is roughly 500k more than sale price.”

Hale said the company was happy to support the deal.

It’s supportive of social causes such as housing, he said, and there were compelling business reasons to support this sale, as well.

‘We believe that in addition to providing lasting community value, the sale of the High Country Inn will allow us to double down on tourism by giving us the ability to build a new hotel with more rooms.

“We believe Whitehorse tourism will have fully recovered by 2023 or 2024 and that there will be room for additional rooms in the market.”

That recovery will allow the company to proceed with a long-term goal of building a new hotel downtown.

“Assuming our market expectations are accurate, we intend to start planning immediately for building a new hotel on Main Street, next to our existing Best Western Gold Rush Inn.

“NVD has been planning for a new hotel for years, but it has never been feasible. There is simply no business case to build a new hotel, unless some existing room capacity is taken out of the market.

“If the HCI is converted to housing, that barrier to a new-build hotel is removed.”

Kate Mechan, the executive director of the Safe at Home Society, said the organization’s sole purpose is to work to end homelessness, and the provision of safe and supportive housing is long overdue for the individuals who are still in need.

“Homelessness has far-reaching consequences that impact everyone is this community, and COVID-19 has served as yet another reminder of the impact inequities have on those who still do not have their most basic needs met,” Mechan said.

“(This project) will help resolve these urgent gaps in the housing and support continuum from a housing-first, harm-reduction, and trauma- informed model of care.”

The RHI, delivered through the City of Whitehorse, covers capital funding for new affordable housing for people and populations who are vulnerable.

Mechan said the federal government project application evaluation period will take up to 60 days, with outcomes finalized by the end of October 2021.

Hale said it will take some time to complete the process, which is a complicated one.

In its earlier life dating back to the 1970s, the High Country Inn was known as the YWCA Building and the Fourth Avenue Residence.