Some Saint John residents are fighting to keep the Safe Harbour youth shelter from closing for good.
Safe Harbour, located in the city’s south end, is a 10-bed emergency and transitional housing facility for youth experiencing homelessness in Saint John.
It opened in March 2015 but, less than a year later, the facility is set to close its doors due to a lack of funding.
“We encountered a number of difficulties, one of them being soil contamination, and then the additional costs related with winter construction and the type of winter that we had last year, so they were two significant additions to the budget,” says Kit Hickey, executive director of housing alternatives.
Since opening last year, 55 youth have passed through Safe Harbour, with the facility at full capacity most nights.
Eager to save the shelter, supporter Catrina Bourque is raising money on her own in the hopes of keeping it open. She says the facility and its staff have already played a major role in the lives of some Saint John youth.
“I was speaking with someone who works there and they’ve watched some of these kids graduate and go to prom and they never thought that would happen,” says Bouque. “I couldn’t imagine if I was to ever have to live out on the streets, I couldn’t imagine not having at least one place to go.”
New Brunswick Social Development is working with the youth affected by the closure.
Hickey says she’s optimistic the almost $1 million needed to reopen Safe Harbour will come through, but probably not before it closes at the end of the week.
“They’re working very hard. The board of directors is committed to the closure being as short-term as we can possibly make it and getting the doors reopened again as quickly as possible,” she says.
Staff have been handed layoff notices. The shelter is scheduled to close on Friday.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Blackford
