Sleeping units arrive at Fredericton’s new transitional housing site

A new transitional housing site in Fredericton is starting to take shape.

Modular sleeping units are arriving this week at Fredericton’s new transitional housing site on Forest Hill Road.

The Neighbourly Homes location will include 27 individual sleeping units connected to a courtyard with shared bathrooms, showers, laundry and kitchen spaces.

The site will be operated by Fredericton-based 12 Neighbours Inc., which already manages two similar sites in Saint John.

12 Neighbours Inc. president Marcel LeBrun said construction at the Fredericton site should be finished before the end of December, with residents moving in by early January.

The Fredericton location on Forest Hill Road has been contentious.

A meeting earlier this fall heard from residents who said they weren’t properly consulted about the project’s location, mentioning concerns about the proximity to an elementary school. A judge denied a court application last week from a resident to stop construction.

“All these projects, there tends to be some folks who are in favor of it and some folks who are opposed to it,” said LeBrun. “And that remains the case. We’re still doing ongoing communication to help people understand how the courtyard will be managed.”

Housing Minister David Hickey said the provincial government, which is funding the Fredericton project, “didn’t do enough” in consulting with residents around the Forest Hill Road site.

“We’re going to make sure we take from that the opportunity as we build more of these projects to support the community as much as possible through that,” said Hickey.

Elsewhere in the province, land has been approved for modular homes on the former Smurfit-Stone mill site in Bathurst for services which would be managed by the Chaleur Regional Service Commission.

LeBrun said 12 Neighbours Inc. would continue to build modular homes at its northside Fredericton site due to demand across the province.

Hickey said the provincial government would being making two transitional housing announcements before the end of the year.

“I don’t want to say specifically where they are because we are making sure we work with the community as much as possible to be involved in exactly what those sites are going to look like and how we can best support their concerns as we move forward,” said Hickey.

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