Nearly two dozen people experiencing homelessness in Saint John now have a new place to call home in the city.
Somerset A.C.R.E.S. is a transitional housing pilot project located behind 344 Somerset Street in the Crescent Valley Neighbourhood.
Sara Graham, who works for Fresh Start Services and manages the site, said most of the 21 tenants moved in just before the holidays.
“A lot of relief I feel like is coming from all the tenants that are in here,” Graham told our newsroom in a recent interview.
“They’re able to focus on other stuff. I’ve never seen people so excited to be able to do laundry in my entire life.”
What the site looks like
Each mobile trailer is equipped with separate bathrooms, showers, toilets, beds, microwaves and storage. One trailer is dedicated as an office, laundry, communal kitchen and clinical space.
The property is fenced and staffed 24/7 to ensure a safe and secure environment for everyone.
Residents will receive intensive, individualized support designed to build independence, set goals, integrate into the community, and enhance self-awareness of behaviours and challenges faced by individuals after experiencing prolonged homelessness.
“We’re just ramping up to it right about now. A lot of people are just kind of doing goal-setting right now. They’re trying to figure out what their next steps are,” said Graham.
“We’re doing a lot of getting ID, getting bank accounts, making sure that they’re in the know of all the community resources that we have down here. So it’s teaching them where to access the things that they need going forward.”
The eventual goal is to prepare clients to move into more independent housing once they are ready to do so, said Graham.
Pushback from some residents
While there has been some pushback from residents living near the site, the manager said it was not unexpected.
“I think the north end was a little bit burned last year with the shelter being there. So a lot of people just kind of assumed it would be the same type of thing,” she said.
“But I’ve had a lot of really positive engagement with the community so far that things have kind of switched into that other direction of being super supportive of what the clients are doing and what they’re trying to accomplish here.”
Fresh Start used the By-Names List, which includes nearly all of the city’s unsheltered population, to determine who was prioritized for housing and who would be the best fit for this type of model.
Graham said she would love to see this type of model expand to other locations throughout the city.
Implementing supported sites to reduce the number of encampments throughout the city was one of the action items in Saint John’s three-year homelessness strategy, which was adopted by council last summer.
