New Brunswick’s homelessness crisis: Housing shouldn’t be ‘deserved,’ expert says

In Part 3 of a series on New Brunswick's homelessness crisis, Global News takes a closer look at the issue of housing, and how access is only part of the solution.

As New Brunswick sees record numbers of unhoused people living outdoors, one expert says involving people in need should be at the forefront of housing solutions.

Dr. Sara Davidson, director of the River Stone Recovery Centre in Fredericton, said though homelessness is a complex problem, there are solutions.

“I think to say that something is just unsolvable is giving up in a way that we don’t have to, in a way that would deny the human rights of a lot of people,” she said.

It’s also an expensive problem. But Davidson argues, leaving people unhoused costs much more.

Davidson said the cost of one homeless person each year is “staggering,” with some Canadian studies finding numbers in the tens of thousands of dollars. A 2012 study on the cost of homelessness country-wide estimated between $4.5 and $6 billion were being spent a year on short-term measures to address homelessness.

“That’s the cost to keep them unhoused,” Davidson said. “That’s the costs in hospital stays, in incarceration, in ER visits, in all of the emergency sides of things.”

With more than 100 unhoused folks in Fredericton alone, that is “a giant amount of money that is being wasted.”

Davidson said the John Howard Society New Brunswick branch recently found that housing a person and providing needed supports led to savings of more than $90,000 annually for the group.