Moncton drop-in centre to open next week

A drop-in centre for people experiencing homelessness in Moncton is expected to open next week, later than a provincial minister had said it would be ready. 

Moncton councillors unanimously voted on Monday to accept a plan from the New Brunswick Department of Social Development for the centre in a city-owned building downtown on St. George Street. 

It is expected to be a resource centre and an out-of-the-cold shelter over the winter. The province chose the John Howard Society of Southeastern New Brunswick to run it. 

"We want to be there to help everybody in the community, whatever their circumstances are," Dan Brooks, the non-profit charity's executive director, told reporters Monday evening.

"We're not purely about being a space for homeless people. If anybody is feeling at risk, they should come and talk to us so we can try to come up with a solution that will keep them keep a roof over their head."

Brooks said the group gets the keys Tuesday and hopes to be open 16 hours per day starting Nov. 15, and all day starting Dec. 1.

Brooks said the centre will have space for 60 people to sleep on mats on the floor from Dec. 1 to March 31. 

Advocates in Moncton have in recent years called for a drop-in space to give people a place to go during the day or at night in the winter if shelters are full.

The vote Monday came after several days of cold weather and snow prompted questions about the status of the centre. 

Social Development Minister Jill Green previously indicated the goal was to open the space last month.

"The intent is to have the out-of-the-cold housing hub, or out-of-the-cold hubs is what we're calling them, open in October so that we are not scrambling when the snow hits," Green said Sept. 18.

In mid-October, the province did not respond to a request for an update on the Moncton hub, or who would operate it.

Green also pledged to have similar centres open in Saint John and Fredericton, but the details about those have yet to be made clear.  

Delayed opening questioned

Last week, an advocate questioned the province's commitment to the plan. 

Father Chris VanBuskirk runs a breakfast and shower program at St. George's Anglican Church in downtown Moncton where he saw people coming in as the weather turned cold, and snow fell without the "hub" open. 

VanBuskirk told Information Morning Moncton it was frustrating as another winter approached with many living on the street. 

"It just makes you sick to your stomach really," VanBuskirk said. 

It wasn't immediately clear why Green's timeline for an October opening in Moncton wasn't met. 

A representative of the provincial government who attended Monday's council meeting said they weren't authorized to answer media questions.

Last week, Green said in question period that the department has been working on the plans since the summer by working with municipalities, identifying available spaces and meeting with groups to talk about what support services can be offered. 

"These are not just shelters," Green said Oct. 31. 

"These are actually service hubs where we will have in-reach teams and outreach teams in each city. The outreach teams will be servicing areas greater than just the central urban areas that they're within.

"They will be going out into the rural areas as well where we have homeless populations out there as well."

Moncton voted in June to lease its building at 473 St. George St. to the province for the drop-in centre, but the decision was based on getting a detailed operational plan from the province by Sept. 30.

Brooks told reporters he believed the delay was the result of the two levels of government trying to sort out the plan.

"The city had to do their due diligence and turn in determining what the use would be, making sure that operational plan was in alignment with their goals and that there were going to be able to answer their to their constituents in an appropriate manner," Brooks said. 

"So they just took a little bit longer for that process to go through, and I think we satisfied those conditions today and we're able to be able to get the keys and move in as early as tomorrow."

Monday's vote will see the province lease the building for a year, with an option to extend the lease by two years.

The former community centre was used as a shelter space last winter, opening in December after advocates warned someone would die in the city without more shelter space being made available. 

Luke Landry died in the public washroom outside city hall only hours after that warning.