By The Courier Editorial Board
Homelessness is no longer hidden – it is on our doorstep, in our communities, on our sidewalks – and bare the faces of people who are our neighbours, our coworkers or our classmates. It can no longer be ignored.
University of New Brunswick associate professor Julia Woodhall-Melnik said homelessness was not thought of as a rural issue – but Charlotte County has not been spared this life-and-death crisis. But the question is: how did we get here?
The answer is a combination of things like the rising cost of living, rent increases, stagnant wages, the opioid epidemic – and in a wider context – the growing economic uncertainty. Many people in our community are one emergency, one job loss, one rent increase away from losing their homes. It’s not a personal failure, but a systemic one.
In New Brunswick, homelessness has increased more than 200 per cent – with more than 1,500 people experiencing chronic homelessness – meaning they’ve lived outside for more than six months consecutively. The Human Development Council, a non-profit organization in Saint John, said between 2019 and 2024, rent increased by 34.7 per cent, while residential property prices rose by 84 per cent. In that same time, food bank visits rose 45 per cent and about 45 per cent of employees in the province make less than a living wage – estimated to be $24.62.
It is not hard to understand why so many people are falling through the cracks.
Small towns were never built to respond to a crisis like this. Leaders and community members are struggling with it – both in trying to find solutions, but also in wanting their community to feel safe – but feeling the weight of the change it has undergone.
How can a community truly be healthy when the resources it needs aren’t available?
In Saint John, for example, 200 of those experiencing homelessness are youth. Many of them are from the foster care system – and when they leave the protection of the Department of Social Development, there is no stable housing, no income, no support. This is the system we’ve built for our most vulnerable youth. Is this what we want for our next generation?
Homelessness is not someone else’s problem, it’s ours. As citizens, neighbours, business owners, voters, we need our government to step up in the right ways. We need them to build more affordable housing, invest in rehabilitation, mental health and addiction services, to ensure the cracks people fall through get smaller every day.
Most of all, remember the numbers you see are people too – who deserve dignity, safety, and hope. There is work to be done and it starts here.
