Province needs out-of-the-cold response for homeless now, says head of Saint John non-profit
Winter has already arrived for the unhoused, says Fresh Start executive director Melanie Vautour
The province needs to speed up its winter response for Saint John's homeless population, the head of a local non-profit says, following a number of deaths last year.
"Speed is of the essence. People are cold," said Melanie Vautour, executive director of Fresh Start Services.
"We're seeing five to 10 people every morning at our door because they're freezing from having been outside the night before."
She said most people take it for granted that it's getting colder.
"But if you were outside 23 hours a day, it's especially cold overnight to be sleeping on the ground, sleeping on benches.… Winter is actually here now for our people who are living outside, and we're still one to two months behind."
Three deaths in encampment fires between January and April sparked a public outcry and demands for decision-makers to find solutions. Since then, the city and province have taken steps to tackle the municipality's crisis, with plans for modular housing and encampment "green zones" on the horizon.
But the number of people sleeping rough in the city has grown since then and temperatures are dropping.
Cara Coes, the city's community support services manager, said at a recent common council meeting that the province is in discussions to add an additional 40 to 60 shelter beds to the city during its out-of-the-cold response. The province, however, has not made any formal announcements.
Vautour says the city currently has 67 shelter beds between Coverdale Centre for Women and Outflow Ministry's shelter.
City of Saint John spokesperson Erin White says last year's provincial winter response provided 40 beds.
CBC News contacted the province's Department of Social Development and was told the minister, Jill Green, was not available for an interview because the province is in a writ period leading up to the election.
The department did not answer questions about when a shelter will be announced or the number of beds that will be available.
Numbers have grown
According to the Human Development Council's dashboard for Saint John, 224 people experienced chronic homelessness on at least one day during the month of August, up from 162 last November.
The city has seen an average of about 37 "newly homeless" people per month since January and an average of 21 people per month being housed or "leaving homelessness."
Saint John Deputy Mayor John MacKenzie said the municipality needs the province to open an out-of-the-cold response and that if the number of beds aren't enough it would need to provide more.
"They have to be the ones that decide what they're going to provide," he said. "And we can help."
But he said the city can only do so much.
"The challenges on our resources ... we have to supply the police services, fire services, water, roads, recreation, those are our areas of responsibility," he said.
"We're trying to take some of that money and help with the homelessness and mental health, the addiction services … and we just can't do that. So they need to resource it better. And we're here to help in any way that a municipality can."
Leaders have stepped up, says Vautour
Vautour said a lot has changed since last winter, with multiple levels of government at the table working with front-line agencies like hers.
"The city has worked with us within the community to develop the Housing for All strategy. The province of New Brunswick has really come to the table looking for innovative solutions," she said.
But with her outreach staff seeing two to three "newly homeless" people per week, she said efforts have to keep pace with the level of need.
"We need to really push for larger solutions to try to get ahead of it because otherwise the developments and the things that we're doing, we're still falling behind," she said.
The city-led Housing for All strategy — launched in June — will establish encampment green zones in the city by the end of the year. The social development-led Somerset ACRES pilot, which will repurpose five trailers into housing 18 units similar to bachelor apartments, will be arriving in the city's Crescent Valley neighbourhood later this year and will house roughly 25 people.
"We've seen [the municipality and province] step up, we've seen a lot of work go into shelters, but more importantly, housing opportunities and seeing some changes to make housing happen really quickly," she said.
The city is currently assessing locations for the green zones.
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