New shelter coming to Bridgewater, N.S., in June

A new shelter is opening in Bridgewater, N.S., next month.

48 Elm St., Bridgewater, N.S., is the new address for a 24-hour, seven days a week shelter for those experiencing homelessness.

“You arrive at the shelter and you are connected with a case worker, and you are working along your case plan and maybe you are moving into transitional housing where you are acquiring your housing skills and once you’re finished with transitional housing you are ideally moving onto our supportive housing we are working to acquire,” says Josie Rudderham, South Shore Open Doors Association (SSODA) Executive Director.

The association has been operating as a night shelter since 2021. Now with $2.2 million from the provincial government, they’re expanding to this new location.

“We will be able to separate men, women and gender diverse folks for safety. We have a ton more security in this building, cameras, swipe-entry and exit, and a lot of daily programming that will be taking place,” says Krista Miller, SSODA Shelter Manager.

By early June, there will be 23 emergency shelter beds and seven transitional housing units. To use the space, the requirements are that the individual must be 19 years old or older as well as homeless.

“We have what you call a behaviour-based model. So, people can arrive as they are in various states, whatever crisis they are going through as long as they are able to successfully complete the paperwork and follow the rules they can stay,” adds Rudderham.

She explains this space is unique to the community and the services and support they offer are needed.

“We had our 12-hour overnight shelter, but it was incredibly challenging to actually connect people to services in that shelter because all of the services are open during the day and here, we are trying to work with people from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. And so that was just survival. It was somewhere to stay, somewhere warm, somewhere to connect with people but what everyone was stressing was that we needed a 24-hour shelter,” says Rudderham.

Which is exactly what will be opening in about a month’s time.

“We will be providing 24-hour services rather than 12-hour services, so there will be food here, lots of different programming, we hope to have folks from mental health and addictions and the sexual health centre and other service providers to come in and do programs throughout the week. There will be case managers here so everyone that comes in will be assigned a case manager,” says Miller.

This comes after the closure of Cedar Place’s drop-in facility in late March, which resulted in a significant drop in police calls and lockups.

“There is worry when you have any new system or support in town, but we are going to do a wait and see approach. We always follow the community complaints, we always track what’s going on in the community and, like I said, we have a great working relationship with SSODA, and we expect any problem that comes up we will be able to rectify pretty quickly,” says Bridgewater Police Service Deputy Chief Danny MacPhee.

The new shelter is away from Bridgewater’s downtown core, in a residential area. Police say they rarely get calls there.

“We hope that just being there will not have as much hangout or just people lingering onto the street,” adds MacPhee.

He says police understand the worry among community members, given the previous concerns that came from Cedar Place.

“We understand that the community is nervous with the experience that we just went through and it does make sense. And we are going to follow the facts with this like any other issue that we have. We track it and see if there is anything that will bring attention to issues that we have to deal with and we will work to change it if it is,” says MacPhee.

Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell says in a statement to CTV News, “This is a very different model than the John Howard operated site. This new facility will not be drop-in, will have a suite of services and supports, and better reflect the needs of the region and the safety of the community.”

Police say the supports and services for housing, mental health and addiction are needed in the area.

“This location is a lot quieter; it’s not in the centre of our business district. There are some residents around there and I’ve been told that the provincial government has reached out to the neighbourhood to have some open houses and work through the concerns they had,” says MacPhee.

SSODA says its looking forward to this new expansion.

“If you are looking to stay somewhere tonight you can come to Roof 28 on Phoenix Street or once Elm Street is open that can just show up any time of day and do the intake. For the other programming services, you do have to be unhoused to participate in services at Elm Street. But the services at the SSODA offices on King Street are available to anybody,” says Rudderham.

The official opening date is yet to be confirmed, but the team at SSODA are planning to open early June. The next step for them is to provide supportive housing.

“We are really hoping to announce the acquisition of 82 supported units in the next couple of months,” says Rudderham.

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