House of Nazareth’s executive director was in defence mode at a press conference Thursday after news broke last week that the shelter would be charging clients up to $300 per month.
Jean Dubé told reporters that people will pay no more than 30 per cent of their income.
For people who are on social assistance, which has a base rate of $537 for a single adult per month, they would pay $144 dollars, Dubé said.
That money is already deducted from those cheques by the Department of Social Development.
“They’re already taking it off the cheque, so we’re asking the government to forward it to the House of Nazareth for operations,” he said.
“That money is available for housing, so if someone is staying in a shelter, that money is available to them or they can assign it to the shelter, whatever’s easiest for them,” said Saint John Lancaster MLA Dorothy Shephard.
She said learning of the shelter fee wasn’t a surprise to her, but she wanted to confirm that no more than 30 per cent of someone’s income would be paid.
But he clarified that the main principle of the ask, at least for people who are on social assistance, is a request to government.
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“Well, it’s a government issue, but there are still some people staying here who are not on income assistance.”
Dubé acknowledged people won’t pay for the first month, which is the expected stay at an emergency shelter, and people would also receive their last month’s fee back to help pay for a damage deposit when they try to find housing.
He also admitted that the way the news came out last week wasn’t handled properly.
“If that would’ve been planned, it would’ve been a disaster as far as communications,” he said. “But it was not planned, and when I received that phone call from a journalist, I was sort of in reaction mode.”
Lisa Ryan, the community development coordinator for the Greater Moncton Homelessness Steering Committee, said the goal is to avoid the feeling of dependence. She said the act of paying rent can establish a feeling of ownership.
“We’re kind of in that situation of…Shelters, staffing, all of the front line services, they need to be beefed up to be able to meet the demand that is within our shelters and on our streets currently, but we can’t move people forward if we don’t start investing in real housing solutions.”
Dubé denied that anyone has had money deducted from them between the announcement and Thursday.
He said talks are going well with Social Development regarding their request for the $144 to come back to the shelter for operations costs.
“We’re finding ways to make this happen,” he said.
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