\n\tAfter what has been a rollercoaster week for the Municipality of St. Stephen, N.B., progress is finally being shown.<\/p>\n
\n\tLate Friday afternoon, a 24 hour, seven day a week drop in centre was announced to help the homeless in the border town. It\u2019s the first overnight area for those living rough to go to escape the cold winter nights.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe centre will be run by Neighbourhood Works Inc. (NWI) and will offer refuge from the cold, along with access to food and beverages. The centre will not be able to provide sleeping accommodations due to regulatory constraints.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s the first sign of change from the border town, who on Monday declared a local state of emergency due to the homelessness crisis in the community. There are anywhere from 70 to 100 people living rough in the border town.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s not the medium or long-term solution,\u201d says Susan Holt, the leader of the Liberal Party of New Brunswick. \u201cBut the community has worked hard to try and find ways to bring people out of the cold right now so it is a decent first step.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe municipality continues to work with the provincial government on opening a shelter in St. Stephen to offer the homeless a warm place to sleep. Public Safety Minister Kris Austin, who terminated the local state of emergency Wednesday, continues to beat home these issues never needed the state of emergency in the first place.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe solution we are finding in St. Stephen have been worked on and we are doing it without a state of emergency,\u201d says Austin. \u201cWe are going to get things done and I\u2019m very confident that these are the types of things that again you work within the parameters of what we got and get results.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSome residents don\u2019t share then same sense of optimism.<\/p>\n
\n\tBrenda Belanger has lived in St. Stephen for a year. She has travelled across the country in the last six months and notes homelessness is an issue coast-to-coast. One that is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFor a country that is as rich as we are to have this many homeless, especially here in St. Stephen is shameful,\u201d Belanger says. \u201cOne in every 71 people are homeless and I can\u2019t see it getting any better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAhead of the warming centre announcement, Belanger says she has seen residents in the community come together to do what they can to help the vulnerable population.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou have plenty of people who are willing to step up. St. Stephen is a very generous community so you know we all are looking out for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCheyann Matthews, one of the co-founders of the grassroots movement \u201cTake Back Our Town,” is pleased to see change finally occurring, but says these issues should have been solved long before this point.<\/p>\n
\n\tShe points to the black eye it paints for those who visit St. Stephen, especially from the U.S.A., that the town can\u2019t take care of their own.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe are a border community and when you have 12 to 15 people sharing a shelter that\u2019s basically a monument to welcome to Canada and welcome to St. Stephen that encampment screams volumes to people who come from the United States that have never visited Canada,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s where we make our homeless shelter for our people and that is not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFriday night at 7 p.m. a candlelight vigil will be held to honour the life of Adam Dickerson in front of MLA Kathy Bockus\u2019 office. Dickerson was homeless and passed away last week while living on the streets.<\/p>\n