Subsidized housing for women in poverty under construction in Moncton [video]

Homelessness and the affordable housing crisis were at the top of the agenda during the first Moncton city council meeting of the year.

City councillors heard about initiatives meant to help poor and homeless people during public presentations on Monday, after a heavy snowfall covered the city and temperatures dropped into deadly levels of cold.

Housing For Life

A volunteer-run organization behind a new housing project for women struggling with poverty said they’re looking for more financial support.

Housing For Life, a non-profit organization that formed in 2023, is administered by a group of volunteers, including longtime anti-poverty activist Auréa Cormier.

The group is building what she described as modest affordable housing units for single mothers and their children, alongside senior women, two groups that face some of the highest rates of poverty in Canada.

“Our motivation is to band together in a positive way to solve problems that very often big businesses do not tackle,” Cormier said in an interview with the NB Media Co-op. High-end residential towers currently under construction in Moncton won’t address the affordable housing crisis, she added.

Fifteen tenants from the Department of Social Development’s waiting list for subsidized housing should be able to move in by Nov. 2025, she told city councillors. The building will be located on Pine Street near downtown Moncton.

The project has $3.2 million price tags, with funding from federal, provincial and municipal levels of government, along with the Green Municipal Fund.

Housing For Life has also done private fundraising, with events such as garage sales listed on their Facebook page. Cormier said the group aims to raise another $750,000, and they hope their mortgage will be small or nonexistent, as they plan to take on more projects.

Speaking to the NB Media Co-op, she noted that the YWCA will provide services to tenants meant to improve their confidence and self-esteem. Unlike the Rising Tide housing project, the project isn’t specifically aimed at the local unhoused population, she said.

Rent will be subsidized by the Department of Social Development, with tenants paying 30 per cent of their income from social assistance. Cormier, a Catholic nun and former Université de Moncton professor, said the housing initiative was motivated by Christian values — the volunteer administrators buried medallions of Mary at the four corners of the lot — but the housing project itself won’t involve religious programming.

Salvus Clinic

City councillors also heard from the new executive director of the Salvus Clinic, which provides medical and other services for people struggling with issues such as homelessness and drug addiction.

In 2023, the clinic was forced to suspend operations after being evicted from its downtown location at 22 Chuch Street. It now has a clinic on Mountain Road with 17 staff and a housing and social services division on St. George Street with 24 staff.

The group has been busy. In 2023-2024 alone, nurse practitioners with the Salvus Clinic provided services to 660 individuals, said Deborah Thomson, who became the group’s executive director three months ago. She said they hope to eventually put all the services under one roof.

A homeless person in downtown Moncton told the NB Media Co-op that he’s experiencing frostbite that will require the amputation of one of his toes. He said he sometimes sleeps at local shelters but when he does, he falls victim to theft. The NB Media Co-op agreed not to identify him due to the stigma associated with poverty and homelessness. 

Moment of silence

City councillors also observed a moment of silence for the dozens of people in Moncton who died last year while homeless, precariously housed, or struggling with drug addiction.

Andrea Anne, community coordinator for the Greater Moncton Homelessness Steering Committee, read out the names of the deceased. Last year’s official death toll was 47, although the real number could be higher. The ages of the people who died ranged from 23 to 70, Anne said.

Also during the council meeting, Codiac Regional RCMP Superintendent Benoit Jolette spoke about the out-of-the-cold shelter on St. George Street. He said police have seen fewer calls for service in the surrounding area ever since the shelter opened, but more calls for service at the shelter itself.  

In other news from council, there was a separate presentation by Suzanne Trites, a representative for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, a Christian pro-Israel group. 

She noted that Monday, Jan. 28 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. She requested that City Hall and other locations around the city be lit up in blue as part of commemorations.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).