No sweet home: Aklavik teachers evicted from apartment over rising costs
Landlord vows to find new homes, blasts government for not ensuring housing for teachers
Last Updated: Thursday, October 16, 2008 | 6:05 PM CT
CBC News
Three teachers in the Arctic community of Aklavik, N.W.T., are scrambling to find a new home after their landlord has told them their apartments are being closed down over rising heating and maintenance costs.
In a letter sent to Neil McKee and two other teachers this month, officials with local company Black Mountain Realty said they would have to vacate their apartments by Nov. 3.
"Being a new teacher, it's quite stressful knowing that I'm coming home and … not being certain as to whether or not I've got a place to go to," he told CBC News on Wednesday.
'That's all I'm after, is a roof over my head and a decent location.'—Neil McKee, teacher
"It doesn't appear that there's other alternatives being offered."
McKee said the letter didn't clearly give reasons, but it mentioned the high cost of running his apartment unit.
In a news release sent Thursday, Black Mountain Realty president Charles Furlong said he didn't mean to leave the teachers out in the cold, but the company is having problems paying for the unit because of growing fuel and other overhead costs.
Furlong said he's working to find new accommodations for the teachers before Nov. 3.
Black Mountain has been helping teachers for years by charging them lower rent, Furlong said, but added that the territorial government should be ensuring proper housing for teachers.
Furlong said he told Education Minister Jackson Lafferty about the problem months ago, but has not received any help to date.
Mackenzie Delta MLA David Krutko, who raised the teachers' situation in the N.W.T. legislative assembly last week, said there has been a staff housing crunch in Aklavik, while the costs of heating and running existing units — some of which are up to 40 years old — are skyrocketing.
"The costs of operating, maintaining, old facilities, the costs continued to escalate, and the costs of heating and providing power to these units are not being recouped," Krutko told the assembly on Oct. 7.
Lafferty said his staff is working with local education authorities to find a solution.
"It is a private contractor that holds that unit, and it is due for closure next month," Lafferty told the assembly.
"We're doing what we can as a department to work with the community to find solutions."
Meanwhile, McKee said he and the two other affected teachers are trying to find another apartment, so they can stay in Aklavik.
"That's all I'm after, is a roof over my head and a decent location," he said.
