St. Stephen gets overnight shelter after long search for location

After neighbours struck down a plan for a temporary overnight shelter in St. Stephen, a local non-profit already running a warming centre will expand to offer a place to sleep.

Neighbourhood Works at 59 Union St. will immediately begin offering the overnight shelter, Mayor Allan MacEachern said Wednesday.  

"It is good that the public now knows there is an official temporary shelter," said MacEachern, who has estimated the number of homeless people the St. Stephen area at about 100. "It's good that that's out there, it puts people's minds at ease."   

In December, St. Stephen declared a state of emergency over homelessness in the town in an effort to draw the province's attention to the problem.  

The new shelter will operate 24 hours a day through April, a statement from the New Brunswick government said. The warming centre has been run by Neighbourhood Works since early December.

The province said the decision was made following discussion with the municipality and Neighbourhood Works. The statement didn't say how many beds will be in the shelter and whether it will be dry, meaning no alcohol or drug use allowed.

Neighbourhood Works has never responded to questions from CBC News about issues affecting the public. On Wednesday, the Department of Social Development would not answer questions either.

Earlier this winter, the province announced a shelter location on Happy Valley Road, but at a public consultation meeting residents had objections and later said the decision on that location was "put on pause." 

Social Development Minister Jill Green was not at that meeting and the only elected provincial representative present, MLA Kathy Bockus, refused to confirm to reporters that the plan had indeed been put on hold.

MacEachern said choosing Neighbourhood Works to expand its operations came out of a recent visit by Premier Blaine Higgs, who met with the mayor and the non-profit to discuss the situation.

"And we put everything on the line," MacEachern said, referring to what the community needed.

"It just had to get through all the red tape and regulations and rules to make the official announcement."

He added that temporary shelters aren't the answer, but it's an action that can be taken now, "so we've got the government's support going into that next phase."

Asked if the municipality is working on the next steps to find a shelter after April, MacEachern said the community is doing that.

"It might not be directly the municipality working on it, but it will be the province supporting it, they'll be working with the groups that are going to be putting this facility in place."

The town's declaration of a local state of emergency came around the same time a homeless man died in a public park.

Less than two days later, Public Safety Minister Kris Austin cancelled the declaration, calling it "political posturing" and blamed "Trudeau policies" for homelessness in St. Stephen. MacEachern then said that he wished the government had responded with action instead of "pettiness."

But when asked Wednesday if his relationship with the province has improved since then, MacEachern said it was never really bad.

"We just had to holler a little bit to get some attention away from the big cities."

He said that declaration had "moved things along."

"It was a piece that needed to be done and helped a lot of us understand the situation."