Moncton's homeless feeling the heat and the loss of a drop-in centre

People struggling with poverty, homelessness and now a heat wave say they have few places to go because of the closure of a drop-in program in Moncton.

YMCA ReConnect was evicted from its St. George Street location in May and moved its office to the Moncton YMCA.

ReConnect has two street intervention workers, who meet clients at the Salvation Army on King Street for two hours a day, but the drop-in program was gutted.

Sitting under a tree to escape the midday heat Thursday, Shelly Kitchen talked about going to the drop-in centre and what it meant to her.

"It was really great when you got to drop in there, you had snacks, they had whatever," she said. "You could just drop in, see other people, friends.

"And now there is nothing."

I think it had a lot to do with the fact that people were uncomfortable seeing the amount of poverty that we have in our city and our downtown core.- Lisa Ryan, YMCA ReConnect Street Intervention

Kitchen now has a place to live, but she has experienced homelessness and said a physical space to be able to relax and call your own is significant when you don't have a home.

"It's important to have a place."

"It's horrible it's not there, because you can go there for different things," she said. "They talk to you about things, they tell you about life, how to get to where you're going."

Lisa Ryan, interim director of YMCA ReConnect Street Intervention, said she's heard similar stories from other people who used to visit the drop-in centre.

"Our program was a home for a lot of people," Ryan said.

It was open from 12:30 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, planned specifically to fill a gap between other free meal services. Ryan said the group was evicted because of pressure from local business and members of the community.

"I think it had a lot to do with the fact that people were uncomfortable seeing the amount of poverty that we have in our city and our downtown core."

But Ryan said closing the drop-in centre has only made the problem more visible.

Reports of more panhandling

On average, 40 to 65 people visited the drop-in centre every day it was open. While City of Moncton bylaw officers say there has not been an increase in complaints, Ryan said she's heard grumblings from people in the community about more panhandling in the downtown.

"We know the issue is there, we know that it's increasing," she said. "We forecasted that it would be increasing back in April, but now we're just seeing what is reality."

These days, she said, it's likely people with little to no money are trying to earn enough to go to downtown coffee shops for a cold drink and to get out of the heat.

With temperatures reaching 30 to 35 C this week, with humidex values of 36 to 42, shelters like Harvest House  are expanding their hours to help people get out of the heat. But normally, the shelter is closed to the public during the day.

YMCA ReConnect has two outreach workers who hit the streets with a cooler full of water to hand out, but in these temperatures they have to limit their time outside.

Ryan said staff are telling her that more people are spending time in abandoned houses, looking for relief from the heat.

"Those numbers are increasing, which concerns us because this is a safety issue for our clients."

Ryan is looking for more funding sources, with her eye on opening another drop-in centre but, she added, "for the next foreseeable  few months, that is not an option until our funding increases."

In the meantime, she is restructuring the organization to best serve the clients with the resources available.