The homeless are beginning to turn to tents as the weather improves.
Senior Director of Outreach Services for YMCA Moncton Trevor Goodwin believes those numbers will continue to grow, as COVID-19 takes its toll.
He expects they’ll be seeing more people who turn to sleeping rough, “We’re going to see a boom in people becoming homeless for the first time. There are going to be people who are working poor and are now homeless and we don’t have affordable housing for them. We don’t have any options for them.”
He says they are already seeing higher numbers, “There are new faces at soup kitchens and food banks, people who have been laid off and are now being forced to sleeping rough.”
Goodwin says once landlords are able to start releasing tenants again, many will end up in shelters, “The shelter environment isn’t the most stable of environments to be putting people into who are entering homelessness for the first time. Statistics show that if you don’t cycle someone out of homelessness when it’s their first time, then they join that cycle and they’re there for a very long time.”
A number of tents have already been reported in Greater Moncton.
“We’re aware of a lot of sites. But, the community needs to be aware there are processes and procedures in place. It is our job to go in and be the liaison and work with those individuals. We contact the appropriate agencies that will come in and aid us with the clean-up. Don’t intervene where someone may be camping without contacting someone else who has a better understanding of the situation,” Goodwin says.