It is with sadness that I am saying goodbye to the North, my job and the friends that I have made along the way.
I have lived in Yellowknife for close to six years but because of the financial burden of living in the North, I have determined that I would be much better off living somewhere else.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my time here and I am grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me but my living situation took a turn for the worse.
Last November, I moved in with some friends living in the Frame Lake area. Including my friend’s two children, there were six people occupying a four-bedroom apartment. I felt crammed in my bedroom and their cat, which I am allergic to, meant that I couldn’t be anywhere else in the apartment. There were some other bumps in our combined living situation but we managed to work them out together. In March, they asked me to move out because they wanted their privacy. I can’t say I blame them. They gave me a very gracious period to find another place to live and I moved out near the end of June.
Before I left, I looked at a number of places available for rent. When I went into the office of a business that provides low-income housing, I asked the receptionist for a viewing and they just told me, “No.” Shocked by her answer, I could only muster a single word in response. “Why?” I asked.
She said that I didn’t want to live there and explained that many broken people with addictions live there, sometimes partying late at night and into the early hours of the morning. I suppose I just needed her to spell it out for me since I already knew that living there would likely be disastrous.
Before I was a journalist, I was working as a swamper for Best Movers. My job had me visit many low-income housing units, mostly cleaning up after people who had abandoned their apartments. The units were always devastated. Broken and turned over furniture, mouldy food in the refrigerator, garbage scattered in every room, dirty laundry covering the floor and sinks filled with filthy dishes. Sometimes there was an abhorrent stench flooding the room.
One of the first times I cleaned such a unit, I saw that there were burnt spoons on the dining table and plastic sandwich bags with a single corner cut off scattered on the table and floor. My friend who was training me at the time, Todd Vatcher, now deceased, explained that people used the spoons and bags to take drugs. We cleaned up many units with evidence that drugs were being used. Fortunately, the receptionist, as well as some friends in the community, reminded me of what it would be like living there. I’m glad I listened.
Next, I looked at rooms that residents were renting out in their own homes. Of the ones I looked at, each were very small and did not have sufficient room to store my things. I eventually did find a place to live that suited my needs but it would only be available in August, meaning that I would be homeless for the month of July. The unit would have also cost me $1,000 more than what I was previously paying while I was living with my friends — though I was paying a very agreeable rate there. While not impossible, it would have made it difficult to get by each month while living a healthy lifestyle.
Having scheduled medical travel and my vacation in advance, it was time to put those problems aside and for me to set off to Edmonton to have some asthma testing done and then to Grande Prairie to spend time with my parents, siblings and their families.
Being close to my family reminded me of how much I missed them. With no home to return to after my vacation, I was eager to find another solution to my living situation. I discussed it with my brother and mentioned how much it would have cost me to stay in Yellowknife. He told me that my rent would have been higher than the mortgage that houses him, his wife and five children. It didn’t take much convincing after that.
If it would cost me much less to live in Grande Prairie and I get to live near family, why would I stay in Yellowknife? I decided that I would make the move in August and resign from my job when I got back to the city.
I will miss the community that gave me so much but not the housing nor the high expenses.