Homeless encampment 'green zones' coming to Saint John. But where?

Aspart of itsHousing for All strategy, the city of Saint John is planning to create "green zones" that allow homeless encampments.

Residents will get a chance to submit feedbackon potentiallocations forthese zones starting atthe end of the summer, saidDavid Dobbelsteyn, thecity's director of growth and community services.

He said city staff will brief council members on the strategy at their next meeting on Aug. 19.

"At that point, we will probably have some parameters established for their feedback and for public feedback on what might constitute a green zone and the various parameters of where they might be located."

Green zonesalong with yellow zones, whereencampments may be allowedat certain times of the year, and red zones, where no encampments will be permittedare part of the city's strategy to reduce homelessness in Saint John in three years.

WATCH | City aims to create structured sites for homeless population:

What is Saint Johns 'Housing for All' strategy?

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Saint John is in the early stages of implementing a plan to reduce homelessness in the city over three years. The first priority will be to create designated 'green zones' for structured encampments.

Dobbelsteyn said a number of services are being considered for the green zones, such as frontline staff, electricity, heat, garbage pickup, andtemporary "structures" like residential units with beds, bathrooms and small kitchenettes.

"Those are all details that are all still being worked through," he said.

Concerns about safety

Dobbelsteynsaidresidents have expressed concernsabout public safety.

"There's concerns with encampments now with the lack of security or lack of support from frontline agencies," he said.

"There's concern that the encampments can get out of control if they don't have support from experts who can provide those services so those are questions we are looking at now."

Dobbelsteyn said there will be "very few"green zones, and care will be taken about where they're located.

"We need to make sure they're far enough away from schools and daycares and other properties that might run into conflict with people or with an encampment or green zone," he said.

Julia Woodhall-Melnik, Canada Research Chair in Resilient Communities based at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, said her reaction to the strategy was mixed.

"We've failed folks for so long in terms of being able to meet their basic housing needs," she said.

"We no longer, as folks who are housed ourselves, have the right to turn around and say 'not near me.'So really, some of the rhetoric with the red, green and yellow zones does kowtow a bit to the NIMBY the not in my backyard ideology."

Woodhall-Melnik said the zones speak well to the scared citizen who may not be used to seeing homelessness at this scale and are worried about safety.

But she alsopraises the plan for recognizing the scope of the issue.

"I think the strategy succeeds in recognizing that we do need housing and that this is a long-term plan it is a three-year plan," she said.

"There's a lot of focus on engagement with the province [in the plan], which is extremely important because the provincial government holds a lot of funding for this we need to be really strong in advocating and presenting solutions that work for our community to the provincial government and asking for funding."

According to the strategy document, the provincial government agreed to be a "lead" or "partner" in 20 of the 28 actions that make up the plan.

She saidthe challenge the city is facing with limited resources is daunting.

"If somebody's been working as staff with the city for 15 years, this is probably the first time they're ever seeing this," she said.

"They're being asked to work in an entire new arena with no resourcing. And is it being dealt with? Well, no, absolutely not. Are they doing the best they can considering the collaboration and the resources that are and are not available? I would say so."

'We need somewhere to put them'

Saint John Coun. David Hickey supports the strategy and saidresidents are justifiably concerned about public safety surrounding encampments, but he saidthe concerns need to be separated from homelessness.

He said "it also needs to be recognized that we do have these issues in our community and we do have real challenges around public safety."

Hickey said green zones are an attainable early step.

"From a feasibility perspective, the green zones are important and are doable. We've seen other municipalities do it. We've just got to make sure the sites are right," he said.

Motioning to the park behind him,Hickey said,"Welcome to a red zone. This is not going to be full of tents but there are places in this community that will be, because we recognize that we need somewhere to put them."