Moncton group that helps homeless gets eviction notice

Moncton group that helps homeless gets eviction notice

The Humanity Project in Moncton is being evicted by Curl Moncton from the former Moncton Curlers' Association building.

Charlie Burrell, the founder of the group dedicated to helping the homeless, was served with a 30-day eviction notice on Monday.

The organization has operated from the building for 15 months, but its efforts to buy the building fell through in February, when Moncton city council rejected its request for a $200,000 loan.

Curl Moncton wants the building sold so it can access the equity it holds in the building to expand its location at the corner of Lockhart and Essex streets.

Burrell doesn't know where the organization is going to end up.

"We've spent the last three months looking for places," he said. "They're either not feasible for what we need them for, or they are way out of our price range."

But Burrell vowed to keep pushing forward.

"Whether we're in another building or whether we're in a parking lot, we can't leave people in our city to go hungry."

Burrell said he plans to launch a fundraising page this week to try to raise the necessary funds "to do it on our own."

"If we don't have a place, the impact will be we'll be in a parking lot in the rain and in the bad weather, serving people and trying to give them the stuff they need," he said.

"We'll be operating out of 10 people's houses, like we did before. It's not an ideal situation."

In addition to feeding about 150 people a day, the Humanity Project provides free clothing, furniture, survival items and food boxes for families in emergency situations.