Latest news with #12Neighbours
CBC
22-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Saint John greenlights two areas for transitional housing for 54 people
Social Sharing Saint John council has approved a plan for "green zones" to tackle the city's growing homeless population and reduce the number of encampments around the city. The pilot project aims to bring 54 individual transitional housing units to two sites — one off Thorne Avenue and the other nearby on Egbert Street, a small side street off Thorne Avenue. Both are near the Atlantic Superstore and the Church of England Cemetery. On Tuesday night, council voted in favour of the city recommendation to designate the two areas "pilot sites." City staff, Mayor Donna Reardon and various organizations also presented the plan at a media event Wednesday morning. Reardon said it's a significant step. "This strategy reflects our commitment to a people-centred, human-rights-based approach, ensuring that every resident has access to safe, supported and sustainable housing," she said. "The sites are city-owned properties providing legally sanctioned, safe transitional housing for individuals experiencing homelessness." Saint John first announced green, yellow and red zones as a part of its Housing for All strategy in July 2024, in a city-led response to the growing homeless population. Cara Coes, the city's senior manager of community support services, said at Tuesday's council meeting that the 12 Neighbours charity group will be operating the green zones and running their "Neighbourly" project on the sites in order to "rapidly deploy" transitional housing. The two green zones will each have two courtyards, Coes said, that will have individual units for at least 13 people each. Every unit will have a bed, locking doors, heat, lights and internet. Both green zones will be staffed 24/7 and will have shared washroom, laundry, kitchen and multi-purpose facilities. 12 Neighbours also runs a tiny home community in Fredericton. "Each of the units are also equipped with an Android tablet," said Marcel LeBrun, the organization's founder. "That gives people access to services, but also entertainment and things like that ... having communications and those things is very important." LeBrun said people living in the units will be able to live there for free to start. WATCH | 'We all need a warm, dry place we can put our head down' Saint John launches long-awaited green zones to tackle homelessness 8 minutes ago Duration 1:58 "There's no charge to begin with," he said. "We are in discussions between the province and the city about transitioning to moving to paying something because that's part of housing stability. So part of housing stability is you have to learn to pay rent." Future residents will be chosen from the city's co-ordinated access system — a system run by a group of agencies that identifies where to place individuals according to need. The separate courtyards, Coes said, will also allow separation for different needs — such as a wet versus dry courtyard. The plan is to open the Egbert Street site in August and the Thorne Avenue site in December. In March, the Human Development Council said there were 276 people experiencing chronic homelessness in the city. Last June that number was 159. Reardon said the green zones are a result of funding from federal and provincial governments of $3.5 million announced earlier in the year. Plans for other zones not finalized In the Housing For All plan's early stages, green zones were planned to be areas in the city that would allow encampments and would have services such as frontline staff, electricity, heat and garbage pickup. The plan also includes yellow and red zones that haven't been finalized. Yellow zones, according to the plan, are areas that would allow encampments at certain times and red zones are "high risk areas" such as public parks, where encampments wouldn't be permitted. The new green zones will be near the overnight shelter on Rothesay Avenue. The roughly 60-bed shelter — which Coes said will now be a permanent overnight shelter — operated as an out-of-the-cold response during the winter. The sites will also be close to an existing encampment near the rail line that crosses Thorne Avenue near the Superstore. Coun. Gerry Lowe — who represents the ward the zones will be in — was the only councillor to vote against the staff recommendation on Tuesday night. "I like the idea of the green zones," Lowe said. "But the location bothers me as a councillor that has to deal with that area. The amount of break-ins there for the last year have been bad, and the garbage that's left behind," he said. Lowe said he wishes red zones were announced first to have an idea of what areas will have tents removed.
CBC
19-05-2025
- General
- CBC
What's driving Marcel LeBrun's mission to eliminate homelessness in N.B.
Marcel LeBrun, founder of the 12 Neighbours tiny home community, wants to eliminate homelessness in New Brunswick, starting with Fredericton. But for his new project, Neighbourly Homes, to succeed, he needs municipalities and communities to get on board.
CBC
15-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
12 Neighbours founder wants to build 'rapidly deployable' transitional housing
Social Sharing Marcel LeBrun wants to eliminate homelessness in Fredericton, and he thinks he has the right model to make it happen. "We want to eliminate chronic homelessness," LeBrun said Tuesday. "And we want to inspire other communities and support other communities in the Maritimes to do the same thing." LeBrun is the founder of 12 Neighbours in Fredericton, which has been providing stable, permanent housing through tiny homes over the past three years to people living rough. Now he's looking to expand with transitional housing through Neighbourly Homes. LeBrun describes the new model as a "rapidly deployable, courtyard-style housing model" made up of 14 individual units with communal bathrooms and showers. Wrap-around services and community support are also integral to his vision, as LeBrun looks to house the nearly 200 people living rough in Fredericton. It's important that the units be "ultra-low barrier," he said. WATCH | Marcel LeBrun explains transitional housing service: Founder of 12 Neighbours wants to do more to end homelessness 18 minutes ago Duration 2:24 "You take away all the reasons why people choose to stay outside. There's no curfew, you have a private space that's lockable, you don't have to leave during the daytime. "This fills a gap in our housing for people with complex challenges and helps them to have a safe, warm place from which we can help them build up the capacity to fund housing that's permanent." Current estimates put the homeless population in New Brunswick at about 2,500 people. Susan Hallet, who lives in 12 Neighbours and works in the factory constructing the new units, will also serve on the advisory board for the new project. The new communities, Hallet said, will be a key piece of stability for those who are spending all of their time just struggling to survive. "It's easier to start a stable life on a firm foundation — that's what it's all about," she said. "This is the perfect stepping stone to start your life off. They just need to have somewhere that's safe, secure and warm." The launch is supported by a $1.5 million donation from Dave and Paula O'Leary and Marcel and Sheila LeBrun. That donation will finance the first 200 units, some of which are likely to be in Fredericton. Others will be in communities across the province. Construction on the units will begin immediately, and LeBrun said the factory can produce a unit a day for about $7,500. The average price for a new affordable housing unit is about $350,000, he said. A site hasn't been selected for the first of the new Neighbourly Home communities, but LeBrun said he's hoping to work with the provincial and municipal governments to find temporary locations and to secure operational funding to run them. "We're trying to remove the barriers to rapidly deploying housing," LeBrun said.
