Fredericton's Poor

This will be a continually updated post to allow Charles to address the issues that constantly face and persist for Fredericton's Poor.

Fredericton Community Kitchen

Limited Seating in the Fredericton Community Soup Kitchen

Above is an image of the seating at the Fredericton Community Kitchen. The kitchen seats about 40 at a time and with the average visitors double that amount, it is most often tight quarters for dinner time. Below are three graphs illustrating the trends over the course of nearly 10 years in Fredericton with the users of the Community Kitchen. Thanks goes out to the Community Kitchens administration for use of these numbers.

All graphics created by the WCIE

1.

Cumulative meals served at the Fredericton Community Kitchen Since 1982


2.

Average number of Meals Served Daily at the Fredericton Community Soup Kitchen between 1996 and 2005.


3.

Meals served annually at the Fredericton Community Soup Kitchen.

Charles Past Posts

Joanna's Story

Prenatal Benefit Program

Lets All Meet Joanne

Media Articles

Videos

STU Video on the Homeless in Fredericton

Written Text

**This text is from the STU Video on Homeless**

A blustering wind blows into the square beside the emergency shelter which joins the local community kitchen, a soup kitchen and food bank for the poor. One after another, men come out of the building and stick a cigarette between their lips. They lean on the iron bar, looking down to avoid the snow falling in their faces.

Looking around further, the board of rental housing aims right at us. Fredericton is becoming an increasingly expensive place to live. Upper-class apartment buildings are being built up and seeking people who can afford to reside live there.

Meanwhile, there are people struggling to find a place to live, and moving into the emergency shelter. High housing costs are forcing people on little social assistance into there. The emergency shelter is currently housing more than forty people.

Brian Justason moved from St. John a couple of months ago, and is now living in the emergency shelter.

Housing is too much money, says Justason. We can't afford it. That's why we are living in a place like this homeless home.

According to Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social service.

However, there are doubts that social assistance actually helps people without a job and a home.

The New Brunswick Common Front for Social Justice reports that a single person in NB receives $3,383 of annual social assistance - the lowest in the country.

Kirk Jonah has been living in the emergency shelter for three months.

I'm pretty lucky to have a shelter,says Jonah.You can't rent a room with your social assistance. You need a shelter because you can't get a room. A lot of people need more social assistance to get a room as it goes now. With 260 dollars a month of social assistance, you can't rent a room.

I don't think housing is more expensive than other cities as far as affordable housing goes, says Eric Price, a licensed realtor of Chippin¡Çs Limited in downtown Fredericton. Applicable apartments are available ln downtown. They range anywhere from 450 to 650 dollars a month. That's heated.

However, he has recognized that living in Fredericton has become more expensive because of high taxation and high utilities. He owns a building with four units and pays $6,000 a year for property tax.

Rentals have been increasing because tax is phenomenally high, says Price. Rental units in New Brunswick are the highest than any other province in Canada. Therefore, landlords are forced to charge more money for apartments in
Fredericton.

Some of them are actively looking for jobs together to move to more conformable places.

Ree Cooney moved from Calgary, Alberta, living in the emergency shelter. He finds less job opportunities than back home.

More rooms are affordable than Calgary, says Cooney. But, wages are lower. There are more jobs in Alberta as well. In Alberta, you can start working with 10 or 12 dollars an hour even without experience oreducation backgrounds.

I think that it is important to get a job first now, says Peter Davin from the States. I need money to maintain a room. But there are no jobs in Fredericton.

Haruka Kudo