Moncton housing program seeks to offer hope for people living in homeless shelters

A Moncton-based organization that supports people struggling with homelessness and substance use has partnered with New Brunswick to provide some much needed hope.

Harvest House Atlantic and the Department of Social Development are opening 28 new community housing units for people currently living in homeless shelters.

The Harvest House Atlantic Community-Based Housing program will offer 20 men and eight women low-barrier housing with full wrap-around services.

Harvest House senior director of communications, government relations and strategic partnerships Marc Belliveau said the goal is to provide people with a quiet space where they can get back on their feet and start thinking about their future.

“It’s so hard to stabilize people in a 60-bed shelter. We do the best we can. We try to meet people where they’re at, but there’s so much noise and there can be a lot of in and out. Once they get here, they close the door behind them,” said Belliveau.

Belliveau said people in the units will have their own private space.

“We can help them personalize then they can really start to look at their future and say, ‘Do I want to go back to work? Do I want to go to school? Can I be reunited with my family and go to my home community? What are the goals in my life that I want to accomplish?’ It’s our job to walk alongside them and help them get there,” said Belliveau.

Harvest House staff have been working with many of the people that are moving in for years and Belliveau said not they’re just trying to get them ready for housing.

“It brings them to a whole new level of feeling comfortable, feeling secure, bring back some of their confidence,” he said. “A lot of people feel like they’re not worthy of housing because they’ve been in the system for so long. So when they finally get it, it can be overwhelming.”

There isn’t a lot of furniture currently in the building on Gordon Street, but Belliveau said that’s by design.

“We do that because we want people to choose their own furniture,” he said. “We wanted it to feel like their home. So we just put the basic items in there and we get to work alongside them now and say, ‘What would envision for your dream home? Let’s make that happen.’”

The plan is to move people from shelters into housing as soon as this Monday.

"Now we can bring 28 more people off the streets," said Belliveau. 

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