Fredericton mayor launches new task force on homelessness

The City of Fredericton has launched a task force to examine what role the municipality can play in ending long-term homelessness and increasing affordable housing options.

Mayor Mike O’Brien made the announcement during his State of the City address. He says homelessness is “a bit of an invisible problem”, but there are more than 700 people in the capital city that “touch homelessness in the course of a year.”  O’Brien says there are also more than 80 people who are chronically homeless in Fredericton.

READ MORE: Summit attendees work towards ending homelessness in New Brunswick

“In a city as wealthy as we are and as prosperous, that’s not acceptable and I think the community has been engaged a lot more in the recent years and educated about the issues,”  O’Brien said. “I know collectively they want this to be solved but they don’t have a vehicle to get involved or to put input.”

He says the task force is a way for everyone in the community to get involved and help find solutions.

“We’re going to look at ways to break down barriers  that make it easier,” O’Brien said.  “Any hurdles that would be in the way of a developer or a non-profit that wants to build affordable housing, we want to break down the regulatory barriers, the application barriers.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We're going to look at ways to break down barriers  that make it easier," O'Brien said.  "Any hurdles that would be in the way of a developer or a non-profit that wants to build affordable housing, we want to break down the regulatory barriers, the application barriers."

He says he wants to we get all the community partner and government to work “even closer together and find ways to get synergy there.”

Community Action Group on Homelessness coordinator Faith McFarland says she’s excited about the task force and says it’s a great exercise for the city to identify what falls under their jurisdiction.  McFarland believes it will also help the city look at “what lever points” the municipality can pull to be able to support housing first.

She hopes the task force will look at ways to “operationalize a housing first program” and use their own skill set to bring together a team.

McFarland says she’d also like to see the development of an inventory of public lands to show which viable sites could work for affordable housing developments.

“When the mayor and council are moving to have a task force on homelessness, it says they actually believe we can do better and the message that gives to the rest of the province is it’s time to begin problem solving in our own communities what we can do to manage the problem differently,” McFarland said.

In an email statement to Global News, The John Howard Society of Fredericton executive director John Barrow says the organization fully supports the task force.

“Since 2010 JHSF has been providing both housing and supports to the Chronic and Episodic Homeless population of Fredericton resulting in an annual social net savings of $270,000.00. Through continued investment in both partnership and community; real and lasting change will continue,” Barrow wrote.

O’Brien says the committee will have four months to come up with recommendations and will bring items to council in March for consideration, along with other items that council could act on to re-energize the city’s 10-year plan.