Dawson City seeks solutions for endless housing crunch

People in the small town of Dawson City, Yukon, often struggle to find a place to live, as recent figures from the Yukon Bureau of Statistics put the rental vacancy rate in the community at zero.

Yasmine Renaud is a living example of that statistic. She says moving is almost a way of life, even after four years in Dawson City.

The service industry worker estimates she's moved 11 times since coming to Dawson.

"I've lived in a tent, I've lived in a van, I've lived in a house with nine other people, you know, I've shared a loft, I've shared a one-bedroom space," she said.

Mathias McPhee and his partner are moving to the outskirts of town to save money on rent. Like Renaud, he's lived in a wide variety of places over two and a half years in Dawson: staff housing, a shared apartment, a place with a "sketchy" landlord, even squatting. This summer, he lived in an office space he was renting.

"For those who don't have any sort of permanent roots, you tend to be moving every four to eight months," he says.

'A stampede'

This wide spectrum of living arrangements is not unusual in the Klondike. Dawson City's population swells every summer, courtesy of tourists and the workers hired to provide services to them, resulting in a demand for housing that routinely outstrips supply. Some places available for rent in the winter even come with leases that end in April, so the buildings can be rented out to tourists or the staff of tourism operators.

With fall comes another wave of students to the town's tiny art school seeking places to live. At the same time, the ad-hoc options many people rely on: rafts, campsites, housesitting, all dry up, causing another crunch.

"If there's a rental unit that comes available, it's just a stampede to try and get in there," said Wayne Potoroka, Dawson City's mayor.

The causes of the shortage are varied. A fluctuating economy and Dawson`s epic decline since the gold rush play a part. So do some of the town`s former development rules. Potoroka says for years it was illegal to build rental apartments in Dawson unless they were on top of a commercial space.

McPhee says he thinks Dawson`s status as a national heritage site also plays a role, since so many buildings are owned by Parks Canada. "There are a lot of empty buildings that should be seeing use, but quite frankly aren't," he said. "The housing issues are here because we have so many more issues with our utilization of space."

It's a drag

Potoroka says he recognizes the potential drag on the local economy caused by the extreme lack of housing. He says it's not just summer workers and transients who are affected, it's also younger professionals and middle class workers, who might want to stay but aren't ready to buy a house yet.

That's why the town is mulling a suite of development incentives for its downtown core, dotted, as it is, with vacant overgrown lots. Under a proposed bylaw, the town would waive taxes on new buildings for 10 years. Developers could also be eligible for grants to cover the cost of certain fees, like permit fees and the cost of water and sewer hookups.

Potoroka says it's a way to coax new development that doesn't cost the town money up front.

"We're getting zero dollars from that [current] undevelopment, so if we can make it attractive for someone to build it and then we can start taxing it in ten years, that's better than not collecting any money at all," he said.

The bylaw passed first reading earlier this year, and Potoroka says he`s hopeful it will be in place before October`s municipal election.

Seasonal scramble

At the same time, the Klondike Development Organization is surveying local interest in an eight-unit apartment aimed at serving the middle of the rental market: people who don't need social housing, but can't afford to buy a house.

The KDO is looking at lining up financing for the project, that would be funded by a mortgage, and, they hope, a Yukon government program that provides grants for new rental construction. KDO staff declined to comment ahead of a meeting with town officials about the project, scheduled for next week.

In the meantime, the end-of-summer scramble for a place to live continues in earnest. For Yasmine Renaud, things worked out well. She found a one-year sublet in a place, downtown, with a friend.

"This time I lucked out actually, I had another girl who found a place for us, but that's pretty unheard of." Renaud said.