New BrunswickThe House of Merritt will be a 12-unit building that will help homeless people get used to living inside again and provide them with support services for complex challenges such as mental health problems and addictions.House of Merritt will have support services for people with mental health and addictions problemsMark Leger · CBC News · Posted: Oct 30, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesA new 12-unit housing project for homeless people is under construction in the Waterloo Village area of Saint John. (Mark Leger/CBC)Melanie Vautour is highly motivated to get people off the streets.The executive director of Fresh Start Services in Saint John is seeing people in “desperate” situations with mental health or addictions problems and a host of other challenges. In the Waterloo Village area near the city centre, construction is underway on a 12-unit building that will house people living in shelters or encampments.“We’re looking at having individuals that present with complex needs, individuals living on the street with poor mental health, histories of trauma, substance use disorder, mental health, and just a long history of what we call cyclical homelessness,” Vautour said.“It will be 12 really desperate people who need specialized support to stay housed.”Vautour said the building on Waterloo Street was originally intended to be for women only, but some men may ultimately live there too in the bachelor-size units.Residents will stay as long as they need the support from on-site services. The rent will be set at no more than 30 per cent of their income, with the balance covered by government rent supplements.Melanie Vautour, the executive director of Fresh Start Services, says the new building on Waterloo Street in Saint John will house mainly women who need support services to manage complex life challenges. (Roger Cosman/CBC)The residents will receive that on-site support from Fresh Start. The first floor of the building will be home to the organization’s new main offices, just up the street from its current location.Fresh Start needs to move out because it has 18 people working in small offices on the ground floor of the two-storey clapboard building in Waterloo Village.“We are bursting at the seams,” Vautour said. “Our outreach is based here, our housing support is based here as well as our prevention and rent bank and administration services. We have outgrown this space and need a new home for Fresh Start as well.”Fresh Start has grown because the scale of the problem has grown in the decade and a half since the organization was founded.Seth Asimakos, the general manager and co-founder of Kaleidoscope, says many people need supportive housing to give them ‘the best chances of success.’ (Roger Cosman/CBC)Seth Asimakos, the general manager and co-founder of Kaleidescope, said building more housing like this is critical for tackling the affordability and homelessness problems in the city. Asimakos said Kaleidoscope, a partner in the Waterloo Street project with Fresh Start, is one of a handful of organizations constructing new buildings to try to meet the needs of people struggling to keep up and a homeless population of more than 200, according to the most recent numbers from the Human Development Council.While many apartment buildings are under construction in the city, he said, not enough of them will have affordable units for people with lower incomes. He said 20 per cent of a community��’s housing stock should be deemed affordable, and Saint John isn’t close to hitting that mark.WATCH | ‘12 really desperate people who need specialized support to stay housed’:New housing project in Saint John for those most in needTwelve homeless people in Saint John will get off the streets and receive the support they need in a new building in the Waterloo Village area.“[That level of] affordability is where we should be if we want to truly create communities that are inclusive and vibrant,” Asimakos said. “Without that, it’s very difficult right now. We’re struggling.”Kaleidoscope is also constructing an apartment building for women and their children in the south end of Saint John and has plans to build more, Asimakos said.He said the city needs more housing like these two projects that provide access to support services such as addictions treatment and mental health counselling and everyday life skills. They also help with things such as getting more skills training and education and finding jobs, he says.Kaleidoscope is building these apartments for women and their children in the south end of Saint John. (Mark Leger/CBC)“Twenty-five per cent of the housing that we’re building should be supportive housing without a doubt,” he said. “That enables individuals who’ve been living on the street for a long time to actually transition and have the best chance of success.”The new building in Waterloo Village will be called the House of Merritt, named in memory of Lois Merritt, the longtime executive director of Fresh Start who died in 2018.“It was a dream of [hers] that people had the opportunity to have a fresh start through housing, so [we’re] building on her legacy and having a house named in her honour that really reaches out to work with the most vulnerable on the street,” Vautour said.The building is scheduled to open next spring.ABOUT THE AUTHORMark Leger is a reporter and producer based in Saint John. Send him story ideas to: mark.leger@cbc.ca
New Saint John housing project will help homeless people most in need
