The recent eviction of twelve tenants from three Gordon Street rooming houses, has a Moncton City Councillor calling for change.
Paul Pellerin says as a City Council they have a responsibility to ensure everyone has a safe place to stay, “You know, it’s distressing to see people thrown out a week before Christmas. They were told it was going to happen. But, as a representative of the Greater Moncton Social Inclusion Committee, I would have liked to have known so I could have at least discussed it with the Mayor and other members of City Council. Not just people being evicted, and thrown out, and our community partners being taken by surprise, and having to have people sleeping in hallways.”
Pellerin says he understands safety is an issue, but if they had known prior, they could have looked at a plan to ensure the tenants had a place to go.
“What do we want to do, how do we want to address this? Do we want to have a template moving forward? At least, maybe Council, might have said, we could have provided some emergency funding for these community partners, who were caught off guard, and who took these people onboard,” Pellerin says.
Pellerin says he has been in contact with Minister Cathy Rogers and she has asked if he would like to be a City Representative on a Committee they would like to form, “Obviously, I will have to discuss this with the Mayor and other City Councillors, so I have their blessing. Hopefully, moving forward, we can mitigate some of the circumstances in the eviction process.”