Hub for homeless people in Saint John will open sooner than planned

A hub for people who are homeless in Saint John, which will include support services, will be in operation by the end of January, Social Development Minister Jill Green announced Thursday.

Originally slated to open in April, Green said the project was accelerated following the death of Evan McArthur, who suffered fatal injuries in homeless encampment fire on the weekend.

"It definitely had something to do with it," she said.

"So this hub is built with the community. We had a workshop in December talking to the different service groups in the Saint John area, talking about what services needed to be in the hub. We're just speeding it all up," Green said. 

The move comes after requests from local MLAs and Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon and her team during an "emergency meeting," Green said.

"We have outreach teams that are out working with people in encampments now. But now there's another place that we can go with them and have them come, so that we can build relationships and begin supporting them in the way they need," she said.

The hub will offer a number of supports, including mental health and addiction services, and "simple things, like helping them get IDs so that they can apply for different services."

Green acknowledged that there are some people who don't feel comfortable going to a shelter.

"That's why we have our outreach teams going out and interacting with them, supporting them. They can come in, get warmed up, start building relationships with us, we can provide them support health-care services to begin to build that trust."

Goal is affordability

At the same news conference Thursday, the City of Saint John, along with the provincial and federal governments, announced more than $7 million for a 39-unit affordable housing complex, called Barrack Green Residences.

According to a news release, the federal government will provide $4.5 million through the rapid housing initiative, and the province will contribute $2.7 million. The City of Saint John and Kaleidoscope Social Impact will contribute $200,000 and $100,000, respectively.  

The units — which will have a mix of one, two and three bedrooms — are aimed at "women-led families" recovering from health health and addiction issues.

"These are vulnerable women, mostly with families, and the goal is to have them pay 30 per cent or less of their income toward these units," Green said.

Saint John MP Wayne Long said the unit prices will be based on a tenant's gross income.

"They are deemed affordable housing. They're going to be basically earmarked. They're not going to be able to go up with a market size," he said. 

Seth Asimakos, founder and general manager of Kaliedoscope Social Impact, said the housing complex project is slated to open by this time next year.  

Asimakos says that New Brunswick Social Pediatrics, a clinic that works with families struggling with addiction, will also  be involved with the Barrack Green development.

"They'll be quite involved as well in that process, so that the individuals actually have made some strides to work toward transitioning [away from their addiction] and rebuilding lives because it is about their children," he said.

"The whole idea of New Brunswick Social Pediatrics is to work with women and their children so that it's not repeated and it becomes a generational thing."

The complex will be built in the lot behind St. John the Baptist Church, which has been vacant since 2018.