Housing For All — A Tale of what NOT to do.
I’ll preface this by stating up front I live on the West side, in Ward 1, and have for close to 20 years now. I am extremely fortunate to be largely insulated from the homeless epidemic plaguing our city, which is centered around the Southern Peninsula, and more specifically Waterloo/Exmouth.
However, as I am wont do to when irritated by the actions, or lack thereof, from our sitting City Council, I am writing this to put my thoughts into one single location. It’s my page, I’ll do as I like.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, we’re all extremely familiar with the homeless and housing crisis facing not only our City, nor even our Province. This is a global epidemic, and the solutions, while frustratingly simple, require the one thing we do not have. For our Provincial government to get off it’s ass, and do it’s job.
There are some very commonly accepted drivers of homelessness. The full reasons are as varied and different as the people who are suffering under the stigma of this, but there are some stereotypes, and more often than not they tend to be true.
- A lack of affordable and subsidized housing.
- A lack of rent caps/controls, and runaway rental pricing, coupled with little to no renter protections and a frustrating and complex Government department overseeing what little there is.
- A lack of Health Care, including Mental Health and Addiction Services.
ALL these, fall squarely under the responsibility of our Provincial government. This was covered in grade school boy and girls. It’s like ghostbusters, you don’t cross the streams, and only rarely, in the most extraordinary circumstances, do the other levels of governance stray from their lane.
My submission to you, is that the current crisis is one such circumstance. We cannot wait for the Province to rescue us. We must find solutions on our own. Our current Provincial government has already shown us that they cannot and will not intervene. The poors, the homeless, and the addicted don’t vote, so fsck them I guess?
Our Municipal Council has, for the past 17 months (https://www.thewave.ca/2023/02/13/saint-john-to-work-on-long-term-homelessness-strategy) had staff working on a long term strategy.
Today, July 17, 2024, some SEVENTEEN months later, we get to see the fruits of that labor, or rather, what the city staff attempted to fob off on us.
To which I say…WHAT…THE…ABSOLUTE…HELL…DID…I…WATCH.
The submitted “final draft” is more appropriate to a ROUGH outline. Basically they submitted something as a “final plan” that would be more appropriate as a starting point. I would have expected it to look like that after the first week. NOT after 17 months of work.
There were several sitting council at this meeting. David Hickey, Joanne Killen, Greg Stewart, Barry Ogden and the Mayor herself Donna Reardon.
Listen carefully…over and over and over they say “I appreciate the work of staff”. They spent the bulk of the meeting pussy footing around the issues, trying not to offend staff by calling out what is CLEARLY substantially substandard efforts, and by basically wasting the entire meeting accomplishing nothing.
Guys, let me be clear. I the HELL DO NOT appreciate the “effort” of staff.
What was presented was pathetic. It would be an insult to call it a half assed effort. It was a lazy, inept, and incompetent piece of work.
It represents staff giving a double middle finger to the people of this city, and the people that worked on this and had the testicular fortitude to try and pass this off to the committee as a final draft deserved to be summarily terminated.
Lets run thru the list shall we?
- What services? Anyone who has sought any form of treatment for mental health or addictions knows there is nothing out there. What agreements have been made, and are these funded and in place? Or is this just another smoke and mirrors promise from the Province like so many others?
- Again, you’ve had 17 months to put this together. Why do we not have a draft version of the bylaws in place for review? What SHOULD happen, is that the final plan should be presented to council, and the bylaw should be present at the same meeting, or at worst the VERY next one, assuming some minor alterations would be required prior to acceptance. Why are you only starting work on this TWO YEARS after the fact?
- A couple of things to remember here:
- The city cannot order the removal from private property. (They CAN fine the owner of said property under bylaws)
- The city cannot order the removal from city owned property WITHOUT having somewhere for them to actually go.
- That being said, the Green/Yellow/Red zones should have been identified in the last 17 months. These should be already KNOWN and included in the final draft.
- It’s absolutely unreasonable to expect the people who have been forced to endure and be subjected to these issues on a daily basis, for nearly an entire YEAR more, because you haven’t done ANYTHING on this issue yet, nor are you expecting to. Q2 of 2025 will mark a full TWO YEARS since this was first begun. That’s when they say they will START the process of identifying these zones.
- Again. SEVENTEEN MONTHS. This should ALREADY BE IN PLACE at the very least in a draft format. We need to move QUICKLY on these items, not have it take 2 years before you BEGIN it.
- Q4 is late fall/early winter. You are STARTING work on this, at the very time where you REQUIRE THEM TO BE OPERATIONAL. They need to be up, completed and ACTIVE by this time. I mean really, how hard is it to realize if you are standing up a supported site pilot, you have to have it ready BEFORE winter hits.
- This ties into item 3. City HAS to have these zones identified BEFORE they can get aggressive with cleanup of the tent sites. But again, you’ve had 17 months, the expectation here should be these sites should be identified already and included with your final draft.
- I mean…we already have a non emergency line for the Police? (1–506–648–3333). However the police seemingly cannot be arsed to do the job they are being paid for, and respond to these “minor” calls.
- They were aware and consulted about this meeting, specifically around the enforcement components, but…noone thought to invite them to field questions on the costs and issues as they stand? Are they not a SUPER important stakeholder on some of this?
- What’s the plan in the short-mid term? Where’s the chief? Ultimately he’s the accountable one to city staff. Are we looking to increase foot patrols in the Waterloo Village area? What other tools/options are available at their disposal to help the current and ongoing situation?
- Again. WHAT services? Do you have signed agreements from the Province? What the timelines? When a need is identified,what’s the SLA for response? Without specifics, this is meaningless drivel. A FINAL draft should be fleshed out and have all the relevant details, even as an addendum.
- We’re still waiting for the 100 Million in investment announced TWO YEARS ago by then Minister Shepard. Do we have signed agreements with the Province? Are the agreed funds in escrow? Have we broken a single spade of earth or done a single actual action item to start ANY of this yet? More importantly, will these agreements survive an election? Or will they potentially be sidelined if a new government takes over and will we then be forced to renegotiate and further delay any movement? A final draft should have a comprehensive cost analysis, included any signed agreements or memorandums.
“The mini container village is only a temporary solution, with Fresh Start and Kaleidoscope set to break ground in the late spring or early summer on a new housing development for the space. The group plans to move the containers to a new location at that time.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/housing-saint-john-homelessness-support-1.7154605
“The containers will stay on Waterloo until June, when Kaleidoscope intends to start breaking ground on the site for a new 12-unit supported housing program called House of Merritt.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/saint-john-homeless-shelter-1.7120203
“Waterloo Street pilot will run until summer, cost $15,000 per container”
Sooooo why is this now listed as “evaluated semi annually” when both the director of Fresh Start AND the CEO of Kaleidoscope are both ON RECORD multiple times, stating these would be gone before summer.
This was “supposed” to be a managed site. Let me be clear, I respect Fresh Start and what they are trying to do. Their methodology is FAR superior to the Department of Social Development, and their associated success rate is substantially higher as a result. I know the biggest landlord that collaborates with their housing program. He’s a full order of magnitude bigger than all of the rest of them combined. HE says they’re top notch, and I respect the hell out of this person’s judgement.
That being said, I DO strongly believe that Fresh Start has bitten off more than they can handle with this site.
Here’s how the site looked when they put it in place, all pretty for the media:
And HERE is what it looks like today (I will give photo credit if the individual wishes, however out of respect for possible fear of reprisal I am not including their name at this time):
Garbage filled to overflowing in the middle of the week. Junk on the ROOF. Jackets strung haphazardly over fences. Graffiti literally ALL over it.
If this is a managed site, HOW did they manage to tag all these buildings? And WHY has Fresh Start allowed it to remain in place? WHY have they not cleaned this site up?
It’s an eyesore. Any normal home owner with that level of graffiti and trash would have bylaw up their nether regions demanding it be fixed. Yet this has been like this for months. If these are going to be semi permanent structures as it seems to indicate in this “plan”…are they going to be brought into compliance? Will Seth Asimakos and Melanie Vautour be made to upkeep and maintain this site to an acceptable level?
I would strongly encourage EVERYONE in an area who has an issue with this site, or any other property where a tent city has sprung up…to contact bylaw enforcement.
If you witness a crime, or drug use, or prostitution, or any form of dangerous/suspect behaviour…contact the SJPD non emergency line. (1–506–648–3333).
They will in all likelihood, refuse to come out. HOWEVER…they can’t hide the intakes. It leaves a record. If anyone is hurt, or worse, these can be a valuable tool to hold the city responsible for the inaction of it’s public servants.
People are scared. People are frustrated by the lack of action from city, council, SJPD, and the Province. It’s only a matter of time before someone takes matters into their own hands. This is a powder keg, and this plan does nothing to soothe the coming flames.
I will end this with a copy of the letter I sent to our current sitting council immediately following the “Housing for All” fiasco.
To date, only a SINGLE member of council has bothered to respond. (Shout out to Mr. Hickey who responded damn near as soon as I hit send). The rest of them, are,and continue to be, ghosts. I will update this if that changes, but I will not be holding my breath. Update: TWO now. I did receive a two word response from Mr. Ogden.
I encourage everyone to write to our municipal representatives, and tell them exactly how you feel, what issues you are facing, and to encourage them to reject this “plan” that staff submitted. Make them do it properly, and engage in immediate action to start fixing this issue.
https://saintjohn.ca/en/city-hall/council-and-committees/mayor-and-common-council
