SaltWire E-Edition

Amherst opens first homeless shelter

AARON BESWICK THE CHRONICLE HERALD abeswick@herald.ca @chronicleherald

AMHERST — Hannah Landry and Monica Gibbons lugged bags of donated clothes, bedding and even a few books into the Crossroads Community Church on Monday.

They roamed the purple and blue rooms that once hosted a Pentecostal congregation’s Sunday school, its kitchen and vaulted nave, and planned how it would become a shelter for Amherst’s homeless by December.

The volunteers and service organization representatives calling themselves the Winter Emergency Temporary Shelter Taskforce had just got word they’d been approved for $360,000 in funding from the Community Services Department.

“We want to prevent anyone from dying this winter,” said Aidan Kivisto, manager of community development at the YMCA of Cumberland County.

The pressure is on. It was -7 Sunday night, and by Kivisto’s count there are about 30 people either living rough outdoors or couch surfing in the blue-collar town near the New Brunswick border. That’s down from an estimated 50 who were primarily in an encampment on the marsh below the town through July and August.

While people sleeping on benches, in doorways and in make-shift shelters have long been a visible reality in Halifax, their appearance in small-town Nova Scotia is more recent.

“In my 30 years, It’s the most I have seen,” said Chief Dwayne Pike of the Amherst Police Service.

It’s been a learning curve for everyone.

Pike’s officers inevitably get called by concerned residents and business owners downtown. Of the 683 calls the Amherst Police Service received in August, 140 were labelled as related in some form to homelessness.

“Now those may be a wellness check, it might be a suspicious person, it might be causing a disturbance,” said Pike, cautioning that people shouldn’t use that statistic to draw conclusions about all homeless people.

“You have to keep in mind that that could be one person, 10 times in one day.”

Those officers often find themselves in the position of negotiators between people who have a right to exist but have nowhere that is their own and property owners often worried about drug use or who don’t want a stranger pitching a tent on their property.

“First and foremost, it’s important to remember these are people who have families, have needs, have rights and people who are deserving of respect, and we need to make sure we treat them that way,” said Pike.

“Not all non-profits have the ability or the capacity to build more affordable housing; entrepreneurs and developers have to be part of the solution.” Elizabeth Smith-mccrossin Cumberland North MLA

The number of homeless in the border town crept up through the pandemic, then last November a fire at a rooming house on Prince Arthur Street displaced about 20 people.

Service organizations in the town have struggled to keep up.

“There just isn’t any,” said Kivisto of available affordable housing.

Over recent decades one of the advantages of Nova Scotia’s former industrial towns was lower-cost housing. That all got bought up during the pandemic. Airbnb property rentals have further diminished the available housing stock. If you can find a onebedroom apartment in Amherst, you can expect to pay $900 to $1,200 a month, plus utilities.

Concerned business owners and residents of Amherst, who didn’t want their names used, said that use of drugs like methamphetamines has also been increasing over the past five years in Cumberland County and neighbouring New Brunswick’s Westmorland County.

That’s added another layer of stress to the relationship between those with homes and those without (who aren’t all drug users).

Neighbours of the Crossroads Community Church spoken to by Saltwire said that while everyone needs a place to sleep, they are worried about who and what behaviours the shelter would bring to their area.

In recognition of these concerns, organizers have budgeted for the 20bed shelter to have two staff members and two security guards on site each evening. As well, Pike said his officers would increase patrols in the area.

“That’s not just to alleviate the concerns of people in the area, it’s also for the people using the shelter to see a visible police presence; we want everyone to feel safe,” said Pike.

The shelter will open each evening at 8 p.m. until the end of April. There will be coffee, tea and snacks and a take-away breakfast in the morning for its users before it closes for the day. Doctors have offered to host outreach clinics at the shelter, and staff from the YMCA will meet with users to connect them with other support organizations.

“The idea is to use the shelter to reach people and help them get into housing,” said Landry.

But she acknowledged that the longer-term struggle is to create more affordable housing. There’s a three-year waiting list at the Cobequid Housing Authority.

Landry’s boss, Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-mccrossin, has been meeting with private developers, government and non-profits. She said that government needs to start working more with private developers to meet the need.

“Not all non-profits have the ability or the capacity to build more affordable housing; entrepreneurs and developers have to be part of the solution,” said Smith-mccrossin.

In the meantime, it’s getting cold and there’s a church to turn into a shelter.

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