Shipping container shelters to replace tents at site of Saint John's most recent encampment fire

The night her tent was set on fire, Robin Monks couldn't understand at first what was happening. 

She was huddled with her boyfriend and two friends in a large encampment between Exmouth and Waterloo streets, where she and about a dozen other people have been living since the beginning of the summer amid a mess of overflowing dumpsters, refuse, propane tanks, and discarded furniture.

They were trying to keep warm in conditions that felt like -11 C with the windchill. 

At about 7:40 p.m., "we heard a car pull up," she said. "And then there was stuff hitting the top of our tent, and they were glowing."

Monks and her friend started hitting the roof of the tent, trying to knock off the objects. 

"I heard the crackles and I realized it was actual fire," she said. As the tent went up in flames, "We all rushed for the other side to try to get out. We were all screaming for help."

Saint John police have released surveillance footage of a car pulling up on the Exmouth Street side of the encampment. A person can be seen getting out of the passenger's side and slipping behind the fence. There is a flash, the tent catches fire, and the person dashes back to the car. 

Forensic services and the major crime unit are investigating the cause of the fire, and police are asking anyone with additional information to come forward. 

The fire — one of several that have occurred at encampments in Saint John over the winter — comes just as non-profits are getting ready to pilot an outside-the-box, temporary initiative to shelter some of the people who need housing most. 

Six shipping containers are being installed at 110-128 Waterloo St. by local non-profit Kaleidoscope Social Impact in collaboration with other community groups. 

Each container has been modified with doors and windows to create two 8x10 units, which will have electricity, heat, a bed, table and basic furniture. When complete, all six containers will have space for about a dozen people and cost $15,000 each. 

"We've been trying to manage the situation," said Seth Asimakos, founder and CEO of Kaleidoscope, which also owns the land. "People don't have anywhere else to go, and we weren't in a position to push people off this site."

Overseeing the site is Fresh Start Inc, a local non-profit the province has hired to provide outreach services to encampments in Saint John. Fresh Start will have an office in the temporary container village where they can connect residents with services, and build supportive relationships with people living there.

The goal is to get people into actual housing, rather than modified shipping containers, according to Fresh Start's executive director Melanie Vautour.