Homeless people in St. John’s ride out storm as advocates worry about supplies running out | CBC News

As St. John’s is under a weather alert that could bring down as much as 85 centimetres of snow, one advocate is worried for the people who don’t have a permanent roof over their heads.

A tent encampment at Bannerman Park near downtown St. John’s has been set up behind Colonial Building since the fall, and the number of people taking shelter there has fluctuated over the past few months, despite Premier Andrew Furey’s creation of a task force to secure housing for the people at Bannerman Park by the end of 2023.

Laurel Huget of Tent City For Change, a group of volunteers supporting people at the tent encampment, said she was unable to say how people at the tent encampment were doing on Friday morning.

Over the last couple of days, she estimated, the group raised and handed out around $700 to help people get food and propane.

“The biggest issue, though, is propane, because we only have a limited number of tanks that we can fill up. So depending on how long the storm takes, we could be looking at folks running out,” Huget said Friday morning.

Right now, Huget is worried about how long the storm will last and how much propane they’ll need. The group also doesn’t have a lot of resources such as a vehicle to go and check the tent encampment to see if people are safe.

“At this time, to my knowledge, no one’s been down yet. But we’re hoping within the next couple of hours we’ll have folks who are able to walk down and check in on folks,” said Huget.

There are also more people at the encampment of late, which Huget attributed to more evictions and people who were couch surfing.

She estimates there are about 14 people currently staying at the tent encampment.

“The last couple of days, like, more and more folks have been trickling in, and we’re still just learning about them and their situations and their needs,” she said. “The situation is changing rapidly.”

Government pledged support

On Thursday, Housing Minister Fred Hutton said he’d visited the tent encampment that morning to tell people there were options available to get them indoors ahead of the storm.

Hutton added he was told that some tent encampment residents said they intended to stay at Bannerman Park during the storm. In response, he said they will be checked on regularly over the storm so if a resident changes their mind, they can avail of other housing options.

“We want to make sure if at 10 o’clock tonight somebody decides that ‘no, I think I would like to leave’ — there’s an option there,” said Hutton.

Taxis will be available to take them to a warming shelter at Safe Haven or the Gathering Place, where Hutton said they would enter the emergency shelter line.

Hutton said no one had to be outside Thursday night and he hoped people would avail of the options.

Huget said she was glad that one of the residents with health issues has gone into a shelter but took issue with messaging coming from government that shelters are available. They’re not, she said, adding her group calls the emergency line several times a day and it’s generally full. At the same time, she said, the shelters aren’t meeting people’s needs.

“The big thing that a lot of folks, it seems, are having a hard time to understand is that people who are staying at tent city want the same … dignities and privacy and rights as anyone else staying in a home,” she said.

If people are staying at a for-profit shelter or the government’s hotel options, they don’t have those rights, she said.

“Many people do the calculations and they’re realizing that they will be safer, better taken care of, better supported staying in a tent than staying in those facilities.”

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