Residents of Fredericton's 'tent city' suddenly awash in donations

The nine people living in tents in downtown Fredericton are suddenly finding they're the focus of lot of attention and donations.

Since last Friday, the residents of the so-called "tent city"have beenrepeatedlyvisitedby people dropping off clothing and cash.

Homeless community recieve flood of donations

6 years ago

Duration 0:49

People have been coming in droves to donate coats, tents, blankets and money.

"It's overwhelming," said Donna Howe, who says she's been living in a tent for eight months.

"They're bringing winter gear, they're bringing tents,hygieneproducts," said Howe. "They're bringing sleeping bags, they're bringingchapstick, everything a person would need on a regular basis to live."

On Monday morning a man even donated around $3,000 in cash.

"Definitelyoverwhelming in capital letters for sure," said JamesOickle, who says he recently lived in those same tents for 170 days.

Oicklebelievesthat recent news stories and shared posts about theperils of beinghomeless in winter weather has sparked the wave ofgenerosity.

"It seems that awareness is getting out there," he said.

On Monday afternoon some tents were sopacked full of blankets and quilts there seemed to be little room for anything else.

The residents of the tents have started to haul some of the donations to other shelters nearby because of a lack of space.

Not a new problem

Howe suggested it's not just increased public awareness, but the literal increased visibility of the tents and their inhabitants that is responsible for the surge of donations.

She said thebright tents stand out againstthe fresh snow, and construction forcedmany of them to relocate from behind a water treatment building to beside it.

"Because it was summertime people really didn't see the emergency in the situation, the severity of it," said Howe. "But now that it's close to Christmas people are becoming more sentimental."

BothOickleand Howe point out that thehomelessissue is not a new one. Many of them have beenliving under bridges, benches andoutdoorsfor months, in some cases years.

The short-term burst of givingwon't do much in the long-term to solve the larger issue, according to somehomelessadvocates.

"There's a lot of different avenues to support people,"saidFaithMcFarland, the community development coordinator for the community action group on homelessness.

She saidmoney and resources often go much further when used by anorganizationthat has been working withhomelessnessfor years.

"And I just really want to remind people that this crisis didn't create itself overnight."