Inside Happy Valley-Goose Bay's struggle with a growing transient population
5 years ago, the Labrador town's estimated homeless population was 25 people. Today the mayor says it's 80
As the homeless and transient population in a central Labrador town grows, so too do the calls for increased policing and better services.
Residents of Happy Valley-Goose Bay have been raising their voices about people living on the community's bike trails. About 80 people held a rally Friday to call for increased policing and better social services.
In 2017, an estimated 25 people were living on the trails system. Today, the mayor estimates it to be 80.
Jim Saunders, 24, is one of them.
"A lot of people wanna drink, so they come here to Goose Bay to drink," Saunders told CBC News. "I usually come up here to hang out with my friends, have a little drink."
Saunders was raised in the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation and now lives at the Housing Hub shelter, run by the Nunatsiavut government. When there aren't any beds, Saunders sleeps on the trails. It's cold, he said, but after five years he's used to it.
"The people of Goose Bay, they don't like us,'' Saunders said. "Because some people do vandalism and violence causing trouble.… I don't cause any trouble. I just love to drink and hang with my friends, have a good laugh."
Saunders would like to see a bigger shelter, though, as there are dozens of people in need of beds for the night but only 12 beds at the Housing Hub. The Labrador Inn has been used as an overflow for-profit shelter.
For Richard Myers, it's a different story. The Happy Valley-Goose Bay man said he's trying to get housing and back on his feet after having a hard time so he can be there for his daughter.
"There's actually very few people who want to get better, honestly. But there's a couple of us here who actually need housing, have kids, have all these things to worry about and we're just put off," Myers said.
Myers said some people at the shelter have homes but simply choose to be at the shelter, and it's causing people without homes, like him, to have to sleep on the streets.
"Half of them don't want to get out of it, but the people who do, we're struggling and we just need to be taken seriously. We need to be looked at as if we're actual people, not just for lack of a better term, bush people," Myers said. "I really hope things change."
There needs to be a bigger, better facility to help the situation with more rooms, doors that lock, a nurse on hand and more outreach programming, he said.
"What else is there to do around here?" Myers said. "There's no mall, there's no arcade, there's nothing to go to. You got [the] bush and you got drinks and what else?"
There needs to be more empathy for people who relapse in their addictions, Myers said. He said finding a place for him and his daughter to live has been difficult and he has been waiting for months.
Province created action, acute teams in response to concerns
The provincial government has created two different teams — the "action team" in May 2021 and the "acute response team" this past June — to address concerns about illegal activity and people living on the trails.
Both teams include representatives from the province, the town, the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation, the Nunatsiavut government, the Innu Nation and the NunatuKavut community council. The action team also has representatives from community organizations, including the Salvation Army, the Labrador Friendship Centre and the town's Housing and Homelessness Coalition.
Last week, the provincial government issued a press release jointly credited to three departments — Children, Seniors and Social Development, Health and Community Services, and Justice and Public Safety — and the executive council to outline what it has done to address the situation.
The release noted that the government gave $85,000 in June to the Salvation Army for an "emergency disaster relief vehicle" and a garage to house it, and in collaboration with the federal government allocated $300,000 over three years for a supports manager at the Housing Hub. The government says it also has provided funds to the Labrador Friendship Centre for a needs assessment, is working with outreach workers and has awarded a tender to build four new social housing units.
More needs to be done for immediate help though, said resident Mary Ann Kane, who has lived on Tenth Street for 60 years. Her home backs onto one of the main areas for people who gather on the trails.
"We hear them screaming behind our backyard," Kane said. "It's scary having to live here anymore"
Lake Melville MHA Perry Trimper is encouraging people to report incidents to the RCMP. He said he's working to push ministers for help on this.
"There have been steps made but they're insufficient," Trimper told CBC on November 3. "There's issues going back generations that we're just seeing manifest in this way.
Trimper said the province is looking at treatment for the persons living in the trails. He said the Action Team is looking at creating a new facility in Happy Valley-Goose Bay with a similar set up to The Gathering Place in St. John's.
"It's complicated, it's tough," Trimper said. "Labrador needs to unite around this, our community needs to unite around this and we'll get through it."
The RCMP have been called countless times, Kane said, but police officers' hands are tied as all they can do is put people in the overnight drunk tank before releasing them the next day. Kane said too many are given free food, clothing and shelter enabling the addictions and there needs to be a different solution.
"I don't know what else has to be done, the government has to step in," Kane said. "There has to be some other answer besides more RCMP."
Justice and Public Safety Minister John Hogan is expected in Happy Valley-Goose Bay this week to adress the situation, along with the commanding officer for the RCMP in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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With files from Rafsan Faruque Jugol