After a fire in a Saint John tent city, 6 temporary shipping container shelters take its place

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.

Shipping container shelters being installed in Saint John encampment

The six containers have been modified to provide electricity, heat, a bed and table, and have space for about a dozen people.

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.

Shipping container shelters

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 8×10 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.

“This is a temporary solution,” she said, and intended to provide some additional safety.

“Heat and electricity are way safer — a solid structure, versus a tent that is much more flammable. And then also the ability to lock doors, so that you have privacy and safety,” said Vautour.

“I think collectively it’s about finding solutions to support individuals and help them to get housed, and get what they need. The only way we’re gonna end this is if we all do it together — to support rather than judge,” she said.

Asimakos agreed it’s a temporary measure.

“It is definitely not something that’s going to stay,” he said.

The shipping containers are a pilot that will run until the summer, when site preparation is expected to begin for a supportive housing development called House of Merit, said Asimakos.

Once the shipping containers are set up, all of the tents “will be gone,” he said.

Not everyone happy

But people who live and own property nearby have been vocal in their opposition to the plan.

One of them is Ryan Gilmore, who lives on the east side but owns properties on either side of the encampment site, and across the street. As a developer, he says he’s trying to build more badly needed housing. He said the encampment, and now shipping containers, are preventing him from finding tenants, and driving down the value of what he’s trying to build.

“No inspectors, no permits, no nothing,” he said of the new shelters. “And I have a 28-page work order on one of my properties across the street that I’m forced to conform to to house people safely.

“Why is Fresh Start and Seth Asimakos and Kaleidoscope able to circumvent zoning and circumvent bylaws and infringe on everyone else’s safety? The people that pay the taxes and the working-class people, why are we forced to feel unsafe at the expense of other people who aren’t even forced to follow the rules?”

In a winter where at least one person was fatally burned and another man lost his leg to frostbite because they didn’t have access to proper housing, Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon says it’s about saving lives until the winter is over.

“You can’t fix this tomorrow. It’s a matter of using what’s available,” the mayor said.

“We haven’t turned a blind eye to it. We’ve turned a sympathetic eye to it. What would be the use of bringing the hammer down on a temporary site? We are trying to look at this through a harm reduction lens.”

As Vautour put it, “it’s very difficult to stand outside in the cold and dream and hope while you’re shivering and you just want to get back into the tent.

“We need these structures to be able to actually sit down and talk to people about where they can go from here, and how we can help them get there.”

Moving in soon

Vautour expects people will start moving into the shipping containers “next week, at the latest.”

People currently living in the encampment will get first dibs on the units.

It’s welcome news to Monks.

As Saint John police investigate the cause of the fire that destroyed her tent and belongings on Sunday night, she’s still camping just a few metres away from where it all burned.

She doesn’t have anywhere else to go.

“It’s probably a lot better than our situation right now. Heated, with electricity and stuff. It’s going to be a big, big step up,” she said.

“I just hope for better — for the future.”