The Yukon government is touting the progress it has made to solve some of the territory’s housing sector problems that were identified by Canada’s Auditor General in 2022.

But an overall lack of supportive housing remains.

As well, at the end of March, the Safe at Home Society’s High Country Inn will need to be vacated for renovations – potentially leaving 29 more Yukoners without a place to go.

The government recently gave a rundown of its efforts in response to the audit. It focused on changes to the way the Yukon Housing Corp. (YHC) ranks candidates for units, as well as funding for the High Country Inn, which continues through the winter.

“Our goal is better outcomes, less evictions and a healthier community,” Shannon Ryan, the YHC’s acting director of policy and communications, told the Star last week.

This comes in response to a fairly scathing 2022 audit that followed a 2010 audit on housing and 2011 audit on health services.

“We found little progress has been made by either the Yukon Housing Corporation or the Department of Health and Social Services (HSS) to fix long-standing issues affecting housing programs and services,” reads a summary of the Auditor General’s findings.

On Dec. 28, the Yukon government gave a full progress report on the response.

It highlighted five areas: prioritization of YHC housing, the development of a quarterly housing report, the updating of third-party agreements, the publishing of progress reports, and work to collaborate with the Safe at Home Society on emergency housing in downtown Whitehorse.

Despite the positive outlook from the government, questions linger about what will happen to the 29 people living at the High Country Inn.

For that building to satisfy building codes and be viable long-term, it needs to undergo extensive renovations.

It is unclear if the Safe at Home Society has yet secured the funding needed for these renovations, which were to cost $30 million at last estimate. But, even if funding is provided, the people living there will need to move out for the work to be completed.

The society’s Kate Mechan told the Star she expects to be able to make a more concrete announcement about the future of the High Country Inn later this month.

Either way, however, the current residents will need to move out.

“In our ideal world, we would work towards permanency for the individuals that we’re currently supporting,” she said. “We just know that it can’t be at the High Country Inn site, and tenants know that as well.”

She said her organization is currently working with the government and other partners to find a place for these people to go.

An HSS spokesperson said the government is working with Safe at Home on individualized plans for each tenant.

At the moment, the society actually gets to have input in deciding who moves in to a portion of YHC’s units, and have already been able to get some of the High Country Inn’s residents into permanent YHC housing.

This is part of the prioritization changes highlighted by the government in its progress in response to the audit.

Previously, a point system was used to rank candidates based on their situations.

If someone was fleeing violence, for example, they would gain points. Alternatively, if a person had more than $100,000 in assets, for an opposite example, they would lose points.

Ryan said this is a commonly-used system, but it is a bit outdated, and many places are beginning to look to different ways to rank candidates.

The YHC has now divided the priority lists into three parts.

The housing corporation has allocated 20 per cent of units to an internal list of groups of people who include those fleeing violence, and people with medical issues.

Twenty per cent go to people on a by-name list — many of whom are experiencing homelessness — managed by Safe at Home, and the other 60 per cent are handed out based on financial need.

The YHC made this change to modernize the system with the goal of encouraging diversity in YHC-owned buildings.

“What’s different now is that we’re taking a more deliberate approach to how we distribute tenants within our buildings,” Ryan said.

She hopes this will allow the YHC to create a better mix of people in each building.

“To have more diversity within a building, to try and create more interactions between people — potentially some friendships between tenants and a healthier overall community — rather than putting all most vulnerable people in one spot,” she said.

Much of the rest of the government’s progress report focuses not on the on-the-ground work that needs to be done, but rather on internal planning and reporting.

Mechan said she is a bit frustrated by the slow pace of change, saying that more actual action is what is really needed.

“It feels like a whole heck of a lot of planning,” she said. “When do we get to just implement and act with the care and urgency that people deserve in light of a housing crisis?”

Because of the magnitude of the issues, Mechan said, the government — and others — need to be more willing to take risks and make large financial commitments.

“Heavy front-end investment — there is no question that is the only way out of out of this crisis,” Mechan said.

“There’s no shortage of organizations that are chomping at the bit to be a part of that solution.”