Will Moncton's new shelter make a difference? Community experts weigh in

A Moncton charity has announced it's building a 120-bed homeless shelter in the city's downtown, but the response from at least two advocates for the homeless has been tepid. 

Charlie Burrell, the founder and president of the Humanity Project, said the addition of the new larger House of Nazareth shelter is a "double-edged sword."

"I think we do need another shelter in our city, something more of a wet shelter to accept people who are under the influence," Burrell said in an interview with Information Morning Moncton.

"But at the same time, we have two shelters in our city now that have been running for a long time, and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

The new shelter will cost $1 million and will be fully operational by fall. Jean Dubé, executive director of Maison Nazareth Inc., the charity opening the shelter, suggested the new building would "put an end to homelessness" in the city.

A part of the shelter will be open to people who have consumed alcohol or drugs and will also include a "dry" section with stricter rules. It will also have mental health and addiction support services on site.

Vincent Merola, the City of Moncton's community development officer for social inclusion, said the new shelter is great news for the community.

"I'm looking forward to mental health and addiction services being on board with this and visiting regularly and connecting with people and getting them into the services," Merola said. "It's not just about housing."

Do shelter policies need to change?

Burrell believes the shelters need to ask themselves why people choose not to stay there. He said some policies, like curfew policies, are too strict. Homeless people who choose to stay with friends or family for one night risk being kicked out for 30 days for missing curfew, he said.

"A lot of people would rather choose to sleep outside in a tent because if they're late getting back to their tent or they don't show up, they still have a nice dry spot to stay the next day," he said.

He said homeless people should be treated like adults and respected.

"There's a lot of teenagers running around our city right now that don't even have 9 o'clock curfews, but yet we impose these rules on grown adults."

Lisa Ryan, a member of  the Greater Moncton Homelessness Steering Committee, agrees policies need to change. She also said the new shelter will be successful if people are treated with respect and dignity when they walk through the doors.

Having addiction and mental health services available at the shelter is "groundbreaking," said Ryan, but she hopes the services understand the value of building relationships.

"I do hope that those services understand that this is going to be a long term commitment, that they're not going to have immediate engagement, that it's going to be something that they really have to invest in."