As the issue of homelessness in New Brunswick continues to grow, another tent camp has cropped up and is causing concerns for people in part of Moncton’s downtown.
“There can be needles, there can be other issues,” says Danielle Jimenez, who lives in the area.
“We’ve seen fights. We’ve seen lots of other things.”
The tent camp at the corner of High and Park streets in the downtown area is seconds away from the Harvest House shelter, although many people who don’t have a home have said they refuse to access shelters for a variety of reasons, including theft, anxiety and certain rules or restrictions.
Isabelle LeBlanc, a spokesperson for the city, says the land is owned by the provincial government and they’re trying to address the issue.
“The City of Moncton is currently dealing with the affected land owners, including the Province of New Brunswick, to obtain necessary permissions in order to remove individuals at this location,” LeBlanc told Global News in a statement.
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“It is taking more time than originally anticipated, but this location is on top of our priority list.”
Jimenez walks her kids to school each day but is frustrated with the disturbances, which she says are the result of people tenting down the road.
“We’ve had a few people come through our yard and with four kids, we are kind of concerned — we have no options, really,” she says.
“We have to build a fence now because we need to make sure that the kids are safe and we’ve had some people approach them when they go outside, so we don’t let them play outside anymore.”
Trevor Goodwin, the senior director of outreach for YMCA of Greater Moncton, says they’ve been visiting the site with by-law officers, telling tenants they need to move along.
But he says it’s a unique scenario with it being provincial land.
“Typically it’s either private property or city property,” he says.
“It really was just a question of legality and contacting property owners, the appropriate owners, and making sure that permission to go on-site is sent out and gone through the proper chain of command and RCMP is notified, by-law is notified.”
Tenants of Moncton’s so-called “tent city” on Albert Street had to find somewhere else to stay after the eviction notice in late September.
The city has said both shelters have room for people.
As for the Albert Street shelter that was supposed to open at the start of August, there’s no official word on when that will be operational.
A building permit request was made earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Jimenez hopes the site in her neighbourhood is dealt with soon, and Goodwin says the site could be cleared this week.
Moncton is expected to announce details of its affordable housing plan sometime in November, according to city councillor Charles Léger.
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