N.B. 12 Neighbours community provides blueprint for helping people

12 Neighbours has become the model for many communities to explore housing the homeless.

The Fredericton community of 80 homes has become an inspiration to people and organizations, giving tours of the area to interested parties.

"We always encourage them not just to think about the physical structure and the houses,” said Marcel LeBrun, the founder of 12 Neighbours. “But what the support structure is and how you actually help people move to independence.”

"This place, all the eyes are on it,” said Al Smith, one of the earliest residents who moved into the 12 Neighbours community back in January 2022. “They want see if we do well, and they want to see if this place is a good thing or a bad thing in the end.

“It's always going to be a good thing.”

LeBrun's fulsome approach to community includes a social enterprise center which is well underway at 12 Neighbours.

Soon the bright spacious room will be equipped with an espresso machine and all the trappings of a coffee shop, including a teaching kitchen in the back, where 12 Neighbours residents can develop skills to work.

"Everywhere that I researched and found organizations that had the most transformative effect in terms of helping people to really get their feet under them, work was an important part of it,” Lebrun said. “So to me it's a really important part.

“I think you can still build great communities elsewhere that solving housing needs without it, but I think it’s very effective in helping people become independent.”

Marcel LeBrun, founder of 12 Neighbours, is pictured. (Alyson Samson/CTV Atlantic)

The social enterprise center will house the Neighbourly Coffee, Neighbours Print Shop, Neighbourly Construction, and more.

For Lebrun, the community is already a success.

"We have some people that have moved in, and already have moved out and have their own places,” he said. “We have other people who have gone from homelessness, to moving in here becoming employed and are still living here, but are self sufficient financially, they're off social assistance.”

LeBrun says once their community of 99 houses is complete they plan to continue building houses in the social enterprise center to hopefully carry out affordable living spaces for other places.

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