St. Stephen mayor responds to complaints about homeless shelter

Jennifer Sweet · CBC News

· Posted: Nov 06, 2025 3:48 PM EST | Last Updated: November 6

The Municipal District of St. Stephen, the foundation that runs a section stateless shelter, and provincial officials are responding to complaints from the nationalist astir what immoderate picture arsenic chaos extracurricular the building.

“We person to instrumentality attraction of our assemblage arsenic a whole, not conscionable the individuals that are unhoused,” Mayor Alan MacEachern said.

“We've got to look astatine our assemblage members and our lifestyles, and however it's being affected, too. It's a precise pugnacious balancing act.”

After attempts to found exigency lodging successful a fewer antithetic spots successful caller years, the Lighthouse Lodge opened successful precocious 2024, downtown connected Main Street.

Neighbours person voiced concerns astir needles, garbage, fights, volatility and sound occurring adjacent the structure immoderate hr of the time oregon night.

“We'd each consciousness the aforesaid mode if we were surviving adjacent to that,” MacEachern said. “We conscionable person to enactment unneurotic and get to a amended situation.”

About 30 radical are utilizing the shelter, said the mayor, but successful caller years, St. Stephen has had arsenic galore arsenic 100 unhoused individuals.

St. Stephen Mayor Allan MacEachern says it's a pugnacious equilibrium betwixt the concerns of his assemblage and the town's stateless shelter. (Allyson McCormack/CBC)

That’s precocious for a assemblage of astir 4,500 people, helium said, and of large concern.

“It's taking up 90 per cent of our clip close now,” said MacEachern.

But the municipality doesn’t person the money, tools oregon expertise to grip it, helium said.

St. Stephen pushed the state to bash thing astir it, and a impermanent structure operated successful 2023, which besides faced neighbourhood backlash.

The enactment Neighbourhood Works Inc. stepped up successful to effort to code the needs, said MacEachern.

Neighbourhood Works Inc. operates the Lighthouse Lodge nether declaration with the Department of Social Development, Jim Stuart, the enforcement director, said successful an email to CBC. 

It’s committed to moving done the issues, helium said, and has taken a fig of actions, including:

• Installing a perimeter privateness fence.
• Maintaining 2 unit members connected work some wrong and outside.
• Introducing nighttime passes that bounds the fig of radical extracurricular overnight.
• Enforcing sanctions for non-compliance.
• Setting curfews for spot entry.
• Conducting regular perimeter checks of the spot wrong the courtyard and successful the surrounding area.
• Reporting immoderate trespassing individuals suspected of amerciable enactment to the RCMP.

Council precocious considered a question to relocate the lodge but voted against it.

The municipality doesn't person grounds to unit a move, MacEachern said.

The spot was purchased done the state and had the due zoning, helium said.

But helium does mean to relay the neighbourhood concerns to the province.

About 100 radical turned retired for a nationalist accusation league hosted by Neighbourhood Works to reply questions astir its work. (Victoria Walton/CBC)

Council has present designated different areas for immoderate aboriginal shelters and brought successful requirements for fencing and buffer zones to abstracted them from different houses, MacEachern said.

“Let’s beryllium honest, there's nary cleanable determination for specified a thing. But we bash what's champion for the assemblage and find that suits the champion we can,” helium said.

Neighbourhood Works would person nary objection to moving if determination were a much suitable abstraction for each progressive and fiscal enactment to bash so, Stuart said.

So far, nary 1 successful authorization has “requested, suggested, oregon offered” different location, helium said.

“Ultimately, the state determines wherever funded programs are located."

LISTEN | St. Stephen politician shares assemblage interest with downtown shelter:

Moving would beryllium expensive, Stuart said, due to the fact that buildings would either request to beryllium transported oregon constructed, and the onshore present zoned for shelters is undeveloped. 

In his view, a much cost-effective mode to trim the neighbourhood conflicts is to make much housing.

“We request transitional lodging successful each assemblage crossed the province,” said Housing Minister David Hickey, seat of a provincial task unit connected homelessness.

This benignant of lodging offers much dignity, stableness and enactment than a structure oregon structure to assistance radical modulation from surviving unsmooth to being capable to determination into much imperishable housing, helium said.

Some examples of transitional lodging see tiny location communities successful Fredericton and Saint John, which person supervision, information and services specified arsenic on-site aesculapian attraction and skills training.

The state has announced $7.4 cardinal to spouse with communities that person those types of projects acceptable to get retired the doorway quickly, said Hickey, and a fig are successful the pipeline.

“That's the benignant of backing that we request to unafraid successful communities similar St. Stephen,” helium said.

Hickey would similar to spot a time successful the adjacent aboriginal erstwhile a structure is nary longer needed due to the fact that radical person capable supported housing.

But he’s unfastened to the thought of relocating Lighthouse Lodge, if that’s what radical successful St. Stephen want.

Housing Minister David Hickey said that the state needs transitional lodging successful each community, including St. Stephen. (Michael Heenan/CBC)

“We privation to enactment with the assemblage connected this, and we'll instrumentality absorption from the assemblage arsenic to what the champion solutions are,” Hickey said.

MacEachern is hopeful the provincial task unit connected homelessness volition get results, including much housing, detox beds, acquisition opportunities, and intelligence wellness support. 

St. Stephen assembly is mounting up a task unit of its own, helium said. It’s being asked to instrumentality a person look astatine the concern with the lodge and suggest a way forward.