A New Brunswick shelter with a policy of not turning anyone away is running out of space and workers fear the problem will worsen in the coming months.
Harvest House in Moncton, N.B. has 32 beds available to those in need; but lately, that hasn’t been enough.
For the first time since the shelter built a second floor to accommodate more visitors six years ago, volunteers have had to lay mats on the floor for guests to sleep on.
“We have mats on the floor most nights,” Harvest House Executive Director Cal Maskery told CTV Atlantic on Thursday.
Maskery said the increased demand in the winter is a harbinger for what’s to come. The shelter tends to be the busiest during the warmer months when people are travelling and on the road. He suspects Harvest House is receiving more visitors because a number of other shelters have shut down in recent years.
“In the last eight years, there have been 42 rooming houses close down, 22 in the last four years, so you can imagine how many rooms… there’s less rooms now than there was,” Maskery said.
Guests can stay at Harvest House for as long as they need to get back on their feet, but Maskery said the average stay is between 10 days to two weeks. In addition to the lack of beds, staff said they have noticed the increase in visitors based on the number of meals they’ve been serving lately. Before Christmas, they were serving approximately 130 meals per week and now that number has jumped to 150 to 200.
To ensure everyone has a place to go for the night, Harvest House regularly co-ordinates with other local shelters such as the House of Nazareth.
“When a client comes, if there’s no room here we do call Harvest House but also, Harvest House does send us some clients here so we do communicate,” Deo Cuma, the House of Nazareth’s executive director, explained.
The House of Nazareth has 30 beds at its facility and visitors there tend to require a shorter stay than those at Harvest House.
Harvest House is planning a run-walk fundraiser on the weekend to raise money for a 12-bed expansion before the busy season.
With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis
