'I have nowhere else to go': Tent cities becoming more common in Saint John

Brenda Cullins doesn't have time to think about where she'll be living this winter because she's too preoccupied about securing her shelter for tonight.

Cullins has been tenting within one of several encampments this summer, which have developed in Saint John. Cullins was cleaning up garbage from others in her encampment on Tuesday.

"If I don't clean it up. the city is going to come back and kick me off the field," says Cullins. "I have nowhere else to go."

"I come back 20 times a day just to check on one tent, just to make sure that my stuff is still here. I got people coming through the bushes trying to steal my stuff. I can’t sleep half the time because I’m always watching out the window of my tent.”

Cullins, who has been experiencing homelessness for about a year, says it's difficult to look too far ahead in the future. But she knows winter isn’t far away.

"I just need someone to give me an edge, or put me into housing for now, until I can get back on my feet," says Cullins. "That’s all I want -- to get off the street.”

On Tuesday night, Saint John city councillors unanimously passed a motion calling for more co-operation between governments and not-for-profit organizations to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness by this winter.

During debate on the motion, several municipal councillors said poverty and housing issues were a provincial responsibility.

"I think on paper, that is true," says Michael MacKenzie of the Saint John Human Development Council. "But I think most municipalities are moving beyond that point and accepting that while jurisdictionally it might not be their responsibility, we as a community have to accept responsibility as a collective.”

"I think for too long, it has often been non-profits and faith organizations who are significantly under-resourced, who this work is downloaded to, and front-line staff who are frankly burnt out."

Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard says all three levels of government should be carrying out more “creative” methods to address housing, poverty, and mental health. However, Shephard says she’s doubtful about one government taking a lead.

"I don't know how it could be possible," says Shephard. "As I’m looking at the housing situation now with the federal department and offering up monies and how it's so prescribed and how we utilize those monies, that sometimes it’s not advantageous to us. So the fact is, we know what we need in each community. Municipalities know what they believe they need. And we need to work with that. The province needs to empower.”

The Saint John Human Development Council estimated 141 individuals were experiencing homelessness in July, compared to its estimate of 112 individuals in April.