Response to Fredericton's homeless puzzles advocate

Advocates for the homeless and representatives from the City of Fredericton and the province will meet Wednesday to discuss options to address homelessness in the city.

Homelessness has become more apparent as harsher weather and temperatures arrive and as the number of tents at the bottom of Smythe Street continues to grow.

Faith McFarland, a co-ordinator with Fredericton's community action group on homelessness and one of the organizers of the meeting Wednesday, said the issue is getting renewed attention, but the problem isn't new.

"It's puzzling, it's not like this is something that's just emergent overnight," McFarland said.

"This has been a crisis in the making, not just for many weeks, but many months and years."

Fredericton Mayor Mike O'Brien agreed that many people in the city didn't understand the extent of homelessness.

"I was getting calls on the weekend from people at home that were shocked that there were homeless people in the city of Fredericton," said O'Brien.

"The reality is there are."

Tents safe, for now

The City of Moncton demolished a "tent city" set up along the CN rail line south of West Main Street on Nov. 8.

O'Brien said the difference between the collection of tents in Fredericton and those in Moncton is that the Moncton location had some health and safety issues that led to its dismantling.

So far, O'Brien said, he's not aware of any such issues in Fredericton.

"We will ask our police and fire to monitor the tents down here to make sure there's no fire in them and that the place is safe, it's hygienic," said O'Brien.

"As long as that's being followed, we have no intention to take [the tents] down."

Short and long-term fixes needed

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McFarland said there needs to be a focus on both immediate fixes as well as more long-term ones.

In the short term, she said, "out of the cold shelters" would keep people from dying on Fredericton streets this winter.

These shelters would be different from Fredericton Homeless Shelters as they would operate overnight as opposed to the 23 hours the regular shelter is open.

This would give homeless people a warm place to sleep, something that isn't guaranteed now as the regular shelter is operating at capacity.

"It would serve as that sort of stop-gap emergency piece," said McFarland.

"The one thing that's missing really is heat and warmth and a bed."

But McFarland said more attention should be paid to providing long-term, affordable housing.

O'Brien said the city is working with other groups to build micro homes to help address housing shortages.

"The community wants to build 40 micro homes around the community over the next three or four years," O'Brien said.

"The first four begin any day now."