New Brunswick mum on details for new out-of-the-cold shelter

Hailey Hachey-Robichaud has been living on the streets for nine years.

The 24-year-old spent last winter at a makeshift homeless shelter inside a former fire hall in downtown Moncton, N.B.

That facility will not be used again this year, and Hachey-Robichaud knows a new space is crucial to survive the brutal cold.

"Temperatures can drop to minus 40 without the wind chill. And with wind chill, that's even more freezing. Most of us, the only time when we're camping out, the only things we've got for heat is maybe the four or five candles that we got by either stealing or buying or somehow [otherwise] obtained," said Hachey-Robichaud.

St. George's Anglican Church in Moncton was also an emergency warming centre last winter, but Father Chris VanBuskirk has already said it won't be used again.

He said a new cold shelter facility is an absolute necessity.

"What happens to us as a society, what happens to us as a person if I let people freeze to death? Although shelters are not the long-term answer, there will always be need for some shelter spaces for those folks who are not ready for housing," said VanBuskirk.

"To have something that is multi-functional and gives room for people to be able to drop in, have a coffee, sleep for a bit, maybe do their laundry and have a shower, there's a great need for that."

Around 160 of the estimated 400 homeless people in Moncton reside inside the House of Nazareth or Harvest House shelters.

"There's so many people living on the streets," said Jamie Mills, the operations director at Harvest House. "Once the temperature drops we're going to see them coming out of their campsites and there's probably at least 200 that I'm aware of and there's probably even more than that."

Harvest House and the YMCA of Greater Moncton submitted a proposal for a new cold shelter to the provincial government this summer with a Sept. 15 deadline.

The province asked for the deadline to be extended to the end of September.

In an email to CTV News, a spokesperson for the Department of Social Development said it has reached out to set up a meeting with the proponents of the cold shelter to discuss the project.

The YMCA didn't comment on the current situation.

A spokesperson for the City of Moncton said they didn't have anything to share at the moment, but did expect to hear back from the province soon.