Salvus Clinic in Moncton approached City Council for $50,000 in grants to help address issues in the downtown area.
Cofounder Dr. Susan Crouse says they applied on behalf of the Sex Workers Action Group (SWAG) – a collaborative effort including many other groups like YWCA, Crossroads for Women, and Ensemble Moncton.
Dr. Crouse says in May, they realized they had to do more than hold meetings.
“The SWAG committee recommended we start work towards a drop in centre,” says Dr. Crouse. “That was based on the voiced needs of the people involved in the sex trade, they needed a safe place to go to get away from things that would harm them.”
She says those recommendations came out of a two day meeting with multiple stakeholders earlier this year.
The three recommendations were the above mentioned drop in centre, as well as more safe, and affordable housing, as well as stable, reliable multi-year funding.
Dr. Crouse says success will require a long term strategic plan, and political willpower.
“In order to go forward with this project, we need to have significant investment from the city,” says Dr. Crouse. “We anticipate that this will be a multi government project, in the vicinity of at least about $150,000”
Meanwhile, Moncton City Council unanimously supported a motion from Councillor Blair Lawrence to examine those increased requests for funding.
Councillor Bryan Butler says the City needs to approach these issues at a strategic level with a coordinated plan.
“Most times sex has nothing to do with it, and I think we have to understand that these people are victims,” says Butler. “We give a little bit of money here, and a little bit of money there, and another little bit here, but we gotta find how to get everybody together to try to fix this.”
Coun. Lawrence says “we need to show leadership now, and then to put pressure on those two other levels of government, who I really think are dragging their feet.”
“We now have a provincial government, well, it’s not really in existence right now, those homeless people cannot wait,” states Lawrence.
Butler says we are no longer a small town, we’ve grown to become a big city, and we have to behave like it, and tackle our problems head on.
“I don’t know if grants are going to fix it, or what’s going to fix it, but we have to work on it,” says Butler. “If we could just get everybody at a table, and figure out what we need for money, and work out budgets, without anybody pulling here and pulling there, I just think if we work together we can get that done.”
The grants were approved in prinicple, but the budget process has just begun with more meetings later in November and December before final approval.
