Community support lifts busy shelter at St. Mary's First Nation

A shelter at St. Mary's First Nation in Fredericton has been operating near capacity since it opened in early December, according to Chief Allan Polchies Jr.

The shelter can sleep up to 10 men and five women needing to get out of the cold.

"There's been a couple of nights it's been a little slow," he said. "But when I say slow, instead of having 10 and 14 clients you may have six or seven. But it's been pretty consistent."

But Polchies said the help coming from the wider community in Fredericton has been staggering.

"There's been a number of … donations — clothing donations, blankets, toiletries, food, some cash donations came in to help us facilitate," he said.

Thousands of dollars worth of donations

He said he estimates the shelter has received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from the surrounding community, including from churches, businesses and individual people in Fredericton, to keep the shelter going.

They've also received immediate help during a small emergency.

The shelter, which is located in the bottom floor of what used to be band council offices, started to flood in the middle of the night. Polchies said people from the neighbourhood came to help.

"Local people from the Fredericton region came in with their equipment," he said.

They were able to move guests to a higher floor and resolve the flooding.

Deidra Paul-Brooks, who works at the shelter, said people have brought everything from DVDs to hot dinners for the guests.

"We have a couple of nursing students coming in twice a week and they started bringing in a big pot of soup with them every time they come in, or chili, and the clients really like it," she said.

Paul-Brooks said it would be difficult to run the shelter all day and night without such donations.

"You're doing it on a budget. … And the donations have made such a big difference," she said.

The St. Mary's shelter is one of three emergency shelters that opened this winter to accommodate homeless people in the city.