A “Buy Nothing” Facebook group based in Moncton’s North End is filling a crucial gap providing items like furniture, silverware and even homemade quilts to homeless individuals moving into housing.
“Buy Nothing” Facebook groups are a network across North America where users can offer or ask for items for free.
Kerri Flemming, who manages two affordable housing programs through her work with the John Howard Society, said she initially joined the group out of a personal interest in refinishing furniture.
When she started her work with the John Howard Association, she started asking for help in the group for people moving into both transitional and permanent housing.
“When I first started working with this organization we were moving 20 individuals from homelessness into apartments,” Flemming said, referring to the apartment units in the Community Hub on Joyce, a housing project for single men exiting homelessness.
“And so that meant that we had to collect furniture and dishes and household items,” she said.
She said the support she has received from members of the group has been “mindblowing”.
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“We were helping out with the emergency shelter last winter so they had no blankets, they had no pillows, no items for comfort at all. I posted on the Buy Nothing group and within 24 hours I had 300 blankets on my doorstop ready to bring to the shelter,” Flemming said.
She said her organization only receives enough funding to provide the “basic necessities” for those moving into their housing projects.
She said the group provides items that aren’t necessary for survival, but can make an apartment feel like a home.
“We don’t have funding for televisions, that’s not a basic need, but someone who’s coming from a busy, noisy, shelter to a quiet apartment, that’s a barrier to loneliness,” Flemming explained.
“So I posted on the group that I have an individual moving in from shelter, does anyone have a TV and within three minutes someone donated a television for this young man.”
At a time when Moncton’s growing homeless population has created a lot of divide and stigma, Flemming said those receiving the items feel appreciated by the community.
“It makes them feel like they belong to the community that they live in,” she said.
“We had individuals (from the Facebook group) who donated homemade quilts and wanted to deliver them in person and build those relationships which is amazing.” she said.
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