Walk on 'coldest night' offers glimpse into homelessness in winter

A Saint John shelter is hoping to open a window on what it's like to be homeless in winter when it holds its Coldest Night of the Year walk today.

Outflow Ministry has partnered with the Blue Sea Foundation, which organizes the annual winter walks across Canada for local charities helping people who live in poverty. 

Tony Dickinson, director of housing with Outflow Ministry, said the walk will give people just "a very brief glimpse of what winter in Canada is like." 

But he hopes the experience will also leave them with a better understanding of what it's like to live outdoors at this time of year, even in a place like Saint John, where winters are relatively mild.

"And they'll be able to focus that learning on ways that we can concretely help people," he said.

Participants registered to walk two-kilometre or five-kilometre distances will check in for the event late this afternoon and can join Outflow Ministry afterward for a hot meal. The fundraising goal is $75,000.

The walk is the shelter's major fundraising event of the year and contributes to the ministry as a whole.

This includes the Outflow Mission, a 30-bed men's shelter on Waterloo Street that serves hot meals five nights a week. The ministry's Catapult Social Enterprises works to provide employment and job training to address some of the barriers homeless people face. 

In recent years, according to Outflow and the Human Development Council, there has been a gradual increase in overall need among the city's homeless.

"People are living more precariously in terms of their tenancy," said Michael MacKenzie of the Human Development Council.

 "We've seen a bit of an increase in terms of the overall number of people experiencing homelessness, but in the past couple of years in Saint John, we've actually seen a slight decrease in the number of people who are experiencing chronic homelessness."

Chronic homelessness is characterized as homelessness that lasts six months or more over the course of one year. 

"With respect to chronic homelessness, the front-line agencies of Saint John have really honed their efforts there and made a slight reduction."

But there are still about 115 people experiencing homelessness in Saint John, with around 60 in a state of chronic homelessness.