The region needs as many as 10,000 new public housing units, groups say
Maritime housing advocacy groups called on governments to invest as much as $1 billion in much needed public housing supply for the region.
This sum could help in the development of as much as 10,000 new public housing units in New Brunswick, according to a non-profit organization.
“Our ask of the provincial government is to help support the community housing sector by investing $1 billion over the next five years,” said Mylene Vincent of Housing Hub of New Brunswick.
“We won’t find solutions until we see our homeless populations as part of our community, as our neighbours, as people.”
Vincent told CTV News that since 2016, the province lost approximately 9,000 units with rents under $750.
Cheryl Forchuck, researcher at The Homeless Hub, said that a unified strategy at the federal level is long overdue.
"Canada is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have responsibility for housing and homelessness at the national level,” Forchuck said. “I would like a fully-implemented national homelessness strategy.”
“We’re seeing the proliferation of encampments, people living outside because there isn’t the capacity within the system.”
A poll conducted by Nanos Research earlier this year found that approximately 35% of Canadians believe that the incidence of homelessness is increasing at an alarming rate.
More than half (55%) of respondents also said that greater funding to address homelessness should be a crucial part of federal spending.
“A majority of Canadians support (33%) or somewhat support (36%) the introduction of a new benefit, paid for by the federal government, that would help low-income Canadians pay rent, to prevent them from becoming homeless and to help those who are already homeless get back into housing,” Nanos said.
