For over a year, Candy Collins has been doing what she can to help homeless people in Saint John.
When Collins found a man in a tent in the front parking area of her building, and another man covered with a tarp and sleeping in a snowbank in her backyard a couple of days later, she could not ignore them and decided to help.
“So, I started giving these guys some clothing, blankets, and pillows, and I would make them a meal every day, and then it kind of expanded from that,” said Collins.
From there, just before last Christmas, Collins started to feed 13 people a night.
“Now, we have expanded and we’ve done a lot of things, such as put some people in homes, or rooms,” she said.
After learning about a person she was introduced to having to go to the hospital for frostbite, Collins reached out to several city councillors requesting additional resources and shelters.
“I was directed to speak to Arlene Dunn, our MLA, and as soon as she got my email she helped get the ball rolling, and within a week we opened up a shelter,” she said.
The shelter is located at the Stone Church at 87 Carleton Street in Waterloo Village.
It has 10 beds and is open seven days a week, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Collins said the shelter will likely see different people each night, however, she does expect to see returnees.
“Hopefully it doesn’t get to a point of us having to turn people away, but that is a very real possibility with only 10 beds, but the space is what the space is, and that is as many as we can put in,” she said.
Collins added the shelter is in need of volunteers to help with either a 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift, or an 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift.
Depending on the shift, volunteers will help sign people in, provide COVID-19 rapid tests, make sure people are quiet and asleep after “lights out” at 11 p.m., and provide a wake-up call.
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