Saint John council gives tiny-home project unanimous support

Saint John councillors have unanimously paved the way for a tiny-home project in the city's east end.

The proposed Sunnyside Tiny Home Community came before city council Monday night for a public hearing on the rezoning required for it.  

The community of 75 to 80 homes would be built near the Fernhill Cemetery and the East Point shopping area. 

The development requires rezoning a patch of forested hill, between Rothesay Avenue and Westmorland Road, from park and utility service to mini-home park residential. The rezoning passed first and second readings by unanimous votes.

The project, announced in September, is spearheaded by United Way Maritimes, a non-profit organization that also runs a tiny-home community in Sackville.

Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Alexya Heelis, executive director of the United Way for central and southwestern New Brunswick, said she was pleased with the council's support. 

"What it reinforces is that the councillors really see and understand that we have a major challenge in our city," Heelis said.

"They're interested in solutions and they're willing to put their vote in front of those solutions because we've got to get a bunch of different solutions in this community to help get people housed. So it feels really great to have a unanimous vote."

People living in the homes will come from the city's by-names list, a real-time list of individuals known to be homeless, and their rents will be capped at 30 per cent of their incomes.

Heelis said the area will be fenced off, and services from nurses, social workers and others will be available.

The project is valued at an estimated $10 million with funding coming from a combination of private donations, the city, and local and provincial governments.

Heelis said the goal is to start building the community in the spring with December as the target time for residents to move in.

Concerns about drug use, safety

In Saint John in December, 242 people were experiencing chronic homelessness, according to the Human Development Council, a non-profit that works on social issues.

The Sunnyside proposal came before the planning advisory committee in January, where fears were expressed about the impact the community could have on public safety and on residents and businesses in the area. 

Tanya Scribbans of nearby Westmorland Heights, one of 10 people to raise concerns with council on Monday, said she worried about the site being a dry one, meaning there won't be strict prohibitions against drug use. 

Scribbans said she supports more housing but wants answers about how the non-profit will address drug use.

"What is your management plan? How are you going to enforce that?" she asked.. 

The United Way representatives did speak to these concerns, but they didn't completely ease them, Scribbans said.

"They kept comparing it to an apartment, but if I'm super loud in the apartment or super destructive to other people around me, I'm not going to be able to still stay in that apartment," she said. 

Sara Napier, the United Way Maritimes president and CEO, told council the organization won't declare Sunnyside a dry community because the idea is that residents should live as they wish, "just like any other neighbourhood in Saint John."

"And through our vetting process we will support people and make sure that they are well-housed and that we will be housing people that will fit well with the community of Sunnyside," Napier said. 

Heelis said the site will be managed and have rules. The community, while not dry, will be home to a variety of people, including people without addictions. 

"People who are chronically homeless and have been homeless for a long time, not all of them have addictions issues," Heelis said. "I think that is a common misconception. 

"Some of them will have those issues and we will want to make sure we have those supports there for them. But we can't help people recover if we don't house people first. The first thing we need to do is allow people to stabilize in a safe, supportive environment."

While the project has cleared the largest hurdle — the public hearing and first and second readings — the rezoning change still needs to go through a third reading.