Welcome to the information page for the Cornerstone Building initiative (Challenge Disability Resource Group’s Affordable, Supported, Market Housing/Office Building initiative)
Challenge Disability Resource Group is a not-for-profit that assists people with disabilities to become active and independent in their community, by learning real job skills and entering the job market. Since 1976, we have been working to create an inclusive community by engaging partners to create training programs and work opportunities for adults with disabilities. We work with community partners to manage a range of job and life skills training enterprises and then partner with local employers to build long term jobs for our consumers. We build a strong foundation of family and agency support for each one of our consumers, a strong set of supports for our employers, and strive to build confidence and pride in each. We offer vocational assessment, employment coordination, and job development services to our consumers. Our many enterprises offer consumers an opportunity to build their skills and offer valuable services to the community. We offer business service contracts, food service experience, wood products manufacturing, landscaping and yard management services and much more. By supporting our programs and using our services you can help make meaningful change in the lives of adults with disabilities in our community. We have started this project to help the Yukon and Whitehorse deal with the housing shortage but mainly to address the Supported Living aspect of the problem. We have had many positive discussions with Yukon Government, the City of Whitehorse, First Nations, and interested stakeholders. Although these parties were supportive of this initiative, the timing has not yet been right. As a response to the need for first stage housing treatment and housing support, the Sarah Steele and the Salvation Army buildings were built. Although these facilities are valuable resources for the community, there is still the need for second stage housing and, more importantly, the supportive and safe community that our facility would provide. We currently own our own land and building on Front Street. We have put money down on the City of Whitehorse's Main Street Lot and we want to build a 53 unit building. The Challenge office will share the second floor with 7 residential units and there is room for another not-for-profit to share. The Main floor will house Bridges Café, Twisted Woodwork's and wood-shop as well as a drop-in centre, and a commercial catering kitchen. These will also provide working, training and educational opportunities for our residential consumers. Our supportive housing initiative would be a cost savings measure for the Yukon Government. Visits to the hospital, detox and people working their way through the justice system would be decreased. We anticipate paying the building in 20 years. We would then generate over a $1,000,000 per year from residential and lease income which would offset the cost of existing programs and provide opportunities for new programming. We may also be in a position to support additional housing initiatives. We are working with local First Nations, The City of Whitehorse, Yukon Government, the Federal Government and local community Organizations and the community at large. We are very excited about all of the positive feedback we have already received. To make this project more imperative we have just had a building assessment done on our existing building and we have been informed that the money it would take to keep our current building operational more than outweighs the value of the building, so we are looking to act fast in order to make this building a reality.
