Homelessness advocates are looking to implement a housing authority for Moncton.
Joanne Murray of the John Howard Society is part of a newly-established non-profit called Rising Tides, one of the prospects for the role.
She says the housing authority would be the expert on all things affordable housing within the city and help better manage funds received from the community.
“Right now, all different non-profits are asking businesses for money, everybody’s kind of at the hand-out because that’s the model we’re in. It would be awesome if we could have one place that could develop relationships with the business community, with major donors and make their money have greater impact,” she says.
A number of studies and reports on homelessness within the city have been conducted in recent years, and now many believe its time to take action.
Director of the city’s social inclusion program, Vincent Merola says the cost of inaction is unsustainable.
The lack of affordable housing within the city is a major contributor to the ongoing homelessness issue.
“You definitely want mixed-income living, that’s definitely best practice that I’ve seen in other communities. The idea is that you would be able to walk through your neighbourhood and not be able to tell ‘oh, that’s affordable housing or that’s a rooming house’, that’s the goal,” says Merola.
While some neighbourhoods may not be open to the idea of implementing affordable housing units, director of social inclusion Vincent Merola says it would benefit the entire community.
“I’ve got to ask, what’s better; accepting them into your neighbourhood, a well-run program for people to pick themselves up, to be able to receive the services that they need and become a member of society or to leave business as usual where it costs the system more money to do nothing,” he says.
Merola says affordable housing can also benefit seniors, students, immigrants and the working-poor often struggle to cover the cost of rent.