Inside a new shelter that is trying to fill a desperate gap in emergency housing

Sheltered, a CBC Investigates series, examines the housing crisis in Newfoundland and Labrador — telling the stories of the people living it, while scrutinizing the policies and politics behind it.

Billy Butler opens the door of the fridge, takes out an apple and shines it on the arm of his hoodie.

"Oh yes, look, she got 'er full," Butler says, bending to look at the well-stocked fridge.

Butler smiles as he makes his way through the new Safe Haven 40-bed shelter and 30-space warming centre on St. Clare Avenue in St. John's.

In a few hours, he and more than a dozen other men who have been living at another nearby shelter, a rectory on LeMarchant Road, will soon move in.

"[I'd] probably be in a tent somewhere, or on the street looking for a place to sleep," says Butler.

Butler says he had trouble finding a place to live in St. John's after he moved from Bell Island. The move was necessary for medical appointments, he says, because a serious motorcycle collision in 2019 left him unable to work.

"The prices were outrageous. Bachelor apartments well over $1,000 and then getting money for food, everything was outrageous here in St. Johns," he says.

"There are a lot of people with mental health and addictions here on the street. I find it really hard to figure out how they're doing it, because they can't read, they can't write, some of them, and trying to navigate and find a place."

Butler called the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation. The NLHC connected him with Ashley Ben Said, who owns and operates a number of non-profit and for-profit shelters in St. John's.

"I'm lucky," he said.

Ben Said's non-profit, Safe Haven, recently won a government tender to operate a low-barrier shelter using a harm reduction approach that doesn't turn people away based on their wellness and sobriety. It's located in the top portion of the Church of the Good Samaritan, an offshoot of the Anglican Church.

"We're trying to cover the bases with everybody, get everybody in from the cold before the winter comes," Ben Said told CBC News in a recent interview.

The newest shelter will operate between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. and will be managed across two large rooms with dedicated staff and security on site. The provincial government is providing $2 million toward its operation.