St. Stephen homeless shelter under investigation by province's SCAN unit
The Lodge-Homeless Hub has been issued a warning following complaints from area residents over drug use
The Department of Justice and Public Safety has issued a warning to a homeless shelter in St. Stephen over suspected illegal drug activity.
The Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods unit, known as SCAN, issued the "community safety warning" to Neighbourhood Works, the local non-profit that owns and operates The Lodge-Homeless Hub, on March 24, said spokesperson Geoffrey Downey.
"Concerns were raised by members of the community," he said in an emailed statement.
Downey declined to say whether the complaints involved drug use or dealing.
No one was evicted or arrested and the shelter remains open as the investigation continues, he said.
No charges have been laid "at this time."
"We will complete the investigation and determine appropriate outcomes based on the evidence," Downey said.
It's unclear how long the investigation will take.
Open 4 months
The 30-bed long-term shelter opened at 9 Main St. in the southwestern border town of roughly 4,500 in mid-December.
Neighbourhood Works bought the former Masonic Hall property and has a contract with the Department of Social Development to run it.
It's a "wet shelter," which means people don't have to be sober to stay there, but no alcohol or drugs are allowed on site.
The shelter also provides supplies, such as clean needles, aimed at harm reduction.
Warning follows other SCAN evictions
The shelter warning comes after SCAN evictions of tenants and squatters from a number of apartment buildings in St. Stephen over suspected illegal drug activity.
CBC News spoke to area residents, including some who are homeless, but they were too afraid to be interviewed.
Emily Muir, community services manager and food bank co-ordinator at the Volunteer Centre of Charlotte County, deals with some of the shelter clients.
"I think people are desperate right now. They're scared and frustrated," she said.
"There's been overdoses on site. There have been people that drive by and see [drug use] outside, and some of the clients who have used on site, like maybe in the smoke shack or in the bathroom. Like again, I don't know if the staff knows that, but it's happening."
Does not condone illegal drug use
Executive director Jim Stuart refused an interview but said later in an emailed statement that Neighbourhood Works "does not condone active illegal drug and/or alcohol use in the building or on the premises."
"Those found/caught doing so will have sanctions imposed based on the severity and the frequency," he said without elaborating.
People suspected of dealing have been banned from the property, Stuart said, and anyone loitering is asked to leave.
Neighbourhood Works has also hired extra staff to enforce the rules, he said.
"None of this was a response to the SCAN notice," Stuart said. "It was in the works due to ongoing observation and concerns from the community and [Neighbourhood Works] staff."
Stuart did not provide staffing numbers, but according to the organization's website, there's always a minimum of two staff working, covering both the inside and outside of the shelter, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Staff may be human service workers, personal support workers, social services community workers, licensed practical nurses, or people with "lived experience," Stuart said.
They are trained in administering Naloxone — a medication used to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses — First Aid/CPR, suicide prevention, and trauma-informed care, among other things, he said.
Fentanyl, meth have taken over town, says Muir
Muir said the drug problem in St. Stephen is the worst it's ever been.
"The whole fentanyl and methamphetamine really took over our town in the last few years … at a very unsettling speed and manner because there's no supports in place for it." she said.
"I mean, we have some decent mental health services and things like that, but not at the capacity it's needed because it happened so quickly and so many people got addicted so fast to these drugs that we weren't prepared for."
The recent SCAN evictions only moved the drug problem from one place to another and displaced more people, Muir said.
"We understand that it is unsafe — they're hooking their own power up, there's lots of drug activity going on, fights taking place, fires are happening. And so it is unsafe.
"But the point is, shutting it down isn't solving it because it solves it for that street, but they're just going to go to the next one."
Council declared emergency over homelessness in 2023
In December 2023, St. Stephen council declared a state of emergency over community homelessness following the death of a man who was found in a park. Council cited a failure and "lack of response" by the New Brunswick government for the homelessness crisis.
An estimated 70 to 100 people in the town were experiencing homelessness at the time.
The declaration called on several ministers in different provincial departments to order immediate help, including funding, resources, housing, transportation options and special attention for the senior citizens experiencing homelessness.
Less than 48 hours later, then-public safety minister Kris Austin cancelled the state of emergency, saying he found "no state of local emergency exists in St. Stephen."
The former Progressive Conservative government did plan in January 2024 to open a temporary homeless shelter on Happy Valley Road, on the outskirts of the border town, near Highway 1, but put the location 'on pause' after a closed meeting with opposed neighbours and business owners.
Calls for more local services
Muir contends more local services are needed to deal with the "crisis" of homelessness and addiction.
"It has been a few years of it now, like three or four years probably for our town. And so we don't have a whole lot longer to wait before it becomes unmanageable."
People need to be medically supervised when coming off these types of drugs, said Muir. "You can literally die withdrawing. So it's not just as easy as stopping it."
As it stands, when addicts do try to seek help, they face long waits, detox programs are short, and then "they're just released back to their tent, or to the street, or to the shelter in the same atmosphere they left.
"It's kind of just a vicious cycle. It keeps going. So it's quite scary actually. That's the situation that we're in at the moment," she said.
Department of Social Development spokesperson Kate Wright declined to comment.
St. Stephen Mayor Allan MacEachern did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.