A proposed housing initiative for people experiencing homelessness in St. Stephen is receiving pushback.
The province announced Tuesday that mobile trailers would be set up on Happy Valley Road, near Route 1, by late February.
Described as phase one of a “temporary housing initiative,” it is meant to give unhoused people a place to go during the winter.
However, several residents and business owners who live near the site are trying to stop it from being set up there.
Andrea McCaffrey, who is speaking on behalf of the group of concerned citizens, said they do not think this is the proper location.
“Nobody on our committee is opposed to helping the homeless. Our opposition is simply for the drug element and the theft element that seems to follow that,” McCaffrey said in an interview on Tuesday.
“It’s too close to the high school, it’s too close to residents — one resident won’t be a stone’s throw away — and there are several businesses in this area.”
McCaffrey said the group also feels that the process to select the location has been done in secret.
After hearing “through the grapevine” about the plans, she said they only received official information after the location had been selected.
McCaffrey was unable to offer an alternative site for the housing initiative during Tuesday’s interview but said the group would be more than happy to help find a more preferred location.
“We would be willing to do that but they won’t release to us what the criteria for that said site would be,” said McCaffrey.
“If they had, from the very get-go, gone to the community and said, ‘these are the criteria we need to meet, does anybody have any suggestions of where we could put this?’ I’m sure that the people in the community would have helped.”
Social Development Minister Jill Green, who is also the minister responsible for housing, acknowledged previously that NIMBYism — an acronym for Not in My Backyard — has been a problem with some of the parcels of land they were looking at.
The department declined to answer any follow-up questions following Tuesday’s announcement. A spokesperson said the purpose of the release was to announce the location, adding that more details would be shared in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, McCaffrey said the municipality has invited representatives from her group to a meeting about the housing initiative on Thursday night.
