Some New Brunswick homeless shelters are reporting their busiest summer yet, at a time when many unhoused people ordinarily choose to stay outside in the warmer weather.
In Fredericton, a building at the exhibition grounds that was only meant to be an out-of-the-cold shelter until mid-April is instead staying open for the foreseeable future.
“Normally people sort of go out into the world, and spend their summers in tents or out and about or wherever they can be without rules and live their life and that’s their choice to do so,” said Warren Maddox, the executive director of Fredericton Homeless Shelters.
“What we found this year is that our usage is way up.”
For Maddox, increasing drug toxicity is playing a big role in the summer increase.
“The people are scared. They don’t have a place to go where they can be safe at night,” he said.
In Saint John, Ben Appleby with the Outflow Ministry is also reporting a record number of people accessing their shelter.
“We’ve seen basically double since (20)22-23 in individuals experiencing homelessness for at least one day in a year,” said Appleby.
The shift is seen provincewide, according to numbers provided by New Brunswick’s social development department, which shows 60 per cent of out-of-the-cold beds in the province have stayed available for the summer.
“We saw this coming, to be honest; that’s why we were really being proactive… really looking at how can we look at increasing capacity in shelters as a response to what’s coming,” said Social Development Minister Cindy Miles.
She says the issue is complex, meaning every community will need different supports.
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