Hot dogs with sour taste. Pizza pockets and rotten eggs for breakfast. Locked laundry rooms. Urine puddles on the floor. Everything is among the complaints made to Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation over the past three years by tenants of the county’s shelter system: a pile of homes in St. Louis. John’s owned and operated by four companies. Homeowners – six in all – are paid on a nightly basis to provide tenants with bedding, household items, appliances and three meals a day. However, documents obtained by CBC News through access to information legislation show customers repeatedly complaining about food shortages, broken windows and doors and sanitary facilities, giving a picture of an emergency housing system that leaves the city’s most vulnerable choose between homeless and worse, life-threatening danger. In emails given to the CBC, a shelter customer said they could not attend work for three days because they could not access the laundry room to clean their clothes. In another case, a nonprofit worker noticed “mice running around” and a smoke detector that appeared to be “broken and torn” and urged NL Housing to find the affected customer a bed in a nonprofit shelter. Another government official told NL Housing that one customer was given so little food that he slept as much as possible to avoid hunger – a complaint the worker said she listened to regularly all these years. This excerpt from an access to information request describes how stale food was offered to private shelter customers. (Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation)
A customer who was served “sour” hot dogs for dinner told NL Housing that he was too scared to tell the person in charge of the spoiled food for fear of being chased down the street. Others said they were given Pizza Pockets for breakfast and one person said an egg sandwich they had been given was “green”. Complaints about food and hygiene appear repeatedly in emails to NL Housing from 2019 until today. Some of the complaints also raised serious security concerns. A mother and her baby, who were staying in a room in January, left the shelter after feeling insecure with two male occupants outside their bedroom door. When she returned a few days later, she found the two men in her room, with her belongings still inside. Another complained of being attacked with a syringe and an email to NL Housing noted that police had visited the home three times in less than a week. Late last year, alleged threats of violence at these shelters culminated in death. On December 27, a 42-year-old woman living in a private shelter on Cookstown Road was reportedly killed by another tenant. She was found by police inside the shelter, fatally injured and died before reaching the hospital.

“These are deaths that can be prevented”

Another act of violence tarnished the city’s speculative housing system in 2019, when a 23-year-old died outside a private shelter on Bond Street. He was not a customer at the shelter, which has since closed, but locals told CBC at the time that they had witnessed several quarrels and attacks outside its doors. This death sparked discussions about the creation of a set of standards for private shelters, such as e.g. those applicable in Torontosays Doug Pawson, head of End Homelessness St. John’s – but nothing ever happened. Doug Pawson, Executive Director of End Homelessness St. John’s says speculative shelters need more oversight. (Paul Daly / The Canadian Press)
“These are deaths that can be avoided,” Pauson sighed. “It does not take a death to lead to the implementation of shelter standards.” Pawson points to private shelters as an essential element of the county’s housing system as it stands, a safety net that prevents the most vulnerable from ending up sleeping outside. But, he says, people who use shelters should not be left to fend for themselves. “Many people leave a [public] “Shelter and go to bed, to a dilapidated house that has people who may not be attached to any service,” Pawson said. “It’s not really good for people’s quality of life. And I think if we don’t have enough services for people, we’re just going to see this cycle go on.”

The standards along the way, says the minister

Unlike a public shelter, private homes have no staff or supervision. No one is there regularly for check in. The Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation, which is responsible for overseeing emergency housing, would not initially interview CBC News about private shelters, nor would it provide written documentation of safety standards for these shelters. Social Development Minister John Abbott, who oversees the provincial housing system, agreed to a request for an interview last week. Abbott told CBC News that his department was responding immediately to the allegations.[holds] the operator accountable “for degraded food or amenities. Minister for Children, the Elderly and Social Development John Abbott says he is working on a set of housing standards across the province. (Terry Roberts / CBC)
He also addressed the issue of repeated security complaints. “We need to intensify our surveillance, our inspections,” he said. Abbott says his department is working on a set of shelter standards. He could not provide a timeline for when they could be implemented, but said the province’s housing system has been in high demand in recent months. “There is a growing need for shelter,” Abbott said. “And we see this fall and winter that the number of people in need of shelter [has] has grown significantly since that time last year. “

Affordable housing the answer: NDP

A shelter operator contacted by CBC News described the difficulty of operating a home occupied by a revolving door of people who often have medical or legal issues. The operator said customers often steal glassware and sheets and break appliances, doors or windows. He suggested to his clients that they end up in for-profit residences as a last resort, when he can not accept them anywhere else. But the interim NDP leader of the province wants to eliminate these houses completely. Jim Dinn, also the MHA for St. John’s Central sent a budget request to the Liberal government in January. The party’s top priority is funding more low-income housing and getting rid of unsupervised homes paid for by the province. “Vulnerable people there probably need more support than the owners and owners of these speculative shelters charge,” Dean said. Together, the 44 beds available in the for-profit system at St. John’s cost the county government $ 1,026,493 last year. Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador