Moncton businesses search for solutions to growing homeless population

MONCTON -

There has been growing concern over the rising homeless population in the Greater Moncton Area, prompting the local chamber of commerce to create a task force to look into the problem.

“There needs to be some solution, and it needs to be now,” says Nasika Breau, owner of Apple Art Gallery in downtown Moncton.

Breau says the homeless population has been growing in the downtown area, however, she says there has yet to be an appropriate solution.

“There’s a lot of work that we have to do that the clients don’t see to protect them, to protect us, and our staff,” says Breau. “Whether its needles, or violent outbursts, or vandalism, or theft, and these are things that growing more and more.”

Breau says it’s a sensitive subject in the city, but there needs to be a better way to help, including more affordable housing.

The Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce is trying to find a solution to the problem by proposing a task force to the city.

“We thought, lets get a taskforce with the three levels of government, business communities involved, social sectors involved, and do a scan of what’s been done so far, and what still needs to be done,” says John Wishart, Executive Director of the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce.

Wishart says the key for the group is to come up with short term solutions that they can start within the next few months, addressing what has been an ongoing problem for many years.

“It’s glaringly obvious that we have a very big addiction problem” says Rebecca McCabe, who has worked for a decade as a barista at a downtown Moncton café. “I just want everyone to have access to the help that they need, and I know they don’t right now, so that’s what I hope for.”

“All that adds up to a solution that’s increasingly frustrating, and we just want to try and create some solutions before it gets worse,” say Wishart.

The Chamber of Commerce hopes the task force will be able to announce some initiatives by early August, in order to move forward on this growing issue.