FREDERICTON – Christina Bernard says she’s been wearing the same clothes for three days and has lived out of the same tent since June.
She describes it as “hell.”
“Nights I come back here and look at my life and what I’ve been through, and I’ll lay in my tent and just cry,” she said.
Bernard has called a small patch of wet sand along the St. John River home for months. She’s part of what the city has dubbed “tent city.”
She wants to go to school and work in a daycare, but can’t because she doesn’t have a proper address. Her boyfriend, Nathaniel Storey, says more needs to be done to ensure people don’t spiral to this point.
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“Right now, there is not a lot of resources for people around here that need the help and need what it is to pick himself back up,” Storey said.
Warren Maddox, executive director of Fredericton Homeless Shelters, says these people need all kinds of support.
“You don’t take an individual and just sort of plop them into an apartment all by themselves and expect the world to suddenly be alright,” he said.
He says they need help in getting clean, educated and proper health care.
Fredericton’s homeless shelters have been at capacity for months now. Maddox says now is the time for political leaders of all levels to step forward, and include services like the shelters and churches in the conversation.
“Stop saying ‘it’s not our problem, it’s not our responsibility,'” said Maddox. “But actually sit at the table with the federal government and the province and the municipality. To sort of sit down and go, ‘Okay, maybe we do have a bit of a role to play here.'”
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Councillor Mike O’Brien has been working for some time to eliminate homelessness in Fredericton. He maintains that the “Housing First” model is the best way to get people on their way to success.
“Your municipal taxes don’t go towards social issues. Your provincial and federal taxes is what’s supposed to look after this,” O’Brien said.
But he understands and is pushing the city to find unique ways to help, like encouraging developers to build affordable units.
The city launched a long-term plan to eliminate homelessness in June. O’Brien says it’s tough to be proactive when the problem has been happening for some time.
“When you have things like the tent city pop up, all of a sudden you get reactive again. It’s hard to be reactive and plan for the future at the same time.”
Work is being done between the homeless shelters and local churches to try and find the people living in tent city temporary housing.
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