City releases plan to implement Red Zones as part of the Housing for All Strategy

At tonight’s meeting of Common Council, City staff presented the next phase of the Housing for All Strategy, outlining the implementation of Red Zones, which are areas where tents, encampments, or temporary shelters will not be permitted across the city.

The Red Zones are being introduced as part of the City’s coordinated approach to homelessness, alongside the already established Green Zones, which provide safe, temporary, transitional housing options with on-site services and supports.

“Every person in our city deserves dignity, safety, and the chance to move toward permanent housing,” said Mayor Donna Noade Reardon. “By creating both Green and Red Zones, we are balancing compassion with responsibility and ensuring that those experiencing homelessness are supported with real alternatives, while protecting the safety of our neighbourhoods, schools, and community spaces.”

Red Zones are areas where tents, encampments, or temporary shelters will not be permitted. These include schools, daycares, early learning centres, licensed afterschool programs, special needs centres, crisis care facilities and emergency shelters, playgrounds, splash pads, sports fields, designated parks, provincially designated highways, railways, Harbour Passage, cemeteries, and designated Green Zones. Buffer requirements include 200 metres around schools, childcare centres, Green Zones, and crisis care facilities; 100 metres around playgrounds and splash pads; 30 metres around sports fields, parks, highways, and railways; and 5 metres around the Harbour Passage walkway.

The City of Saint John is committed to a person-centred, compassionate, and rights-based approach. Outreach teams will work with individuals living in encampments to create relocation plans and connect them with appropriate housing, shelter, or Green Zone options. In most cases, relocation is achieved voluntarily with the support of outreach staff.

In May, the City announced the Green Zone phase of the Housing for All Strategy, identifying City-owned properties that provide legally authorized transitional housing. These sites offer essential services exclusively to residents, creating structured pathways toward permanent housing. In July, the first residents were welcomed to the Neighbourly Homes community on Egbert Street, marking a transformative milestone in Saint John’s housing strategy. Construction is also underway at the Thorne Avenue Green Zone, which will provide an additional 27 transitional housing units by December, and Somerset Acres continues to provide another important transitional housing option in the community.

The Red Zones represent the next step in balancing community safety and dignity for residents while ensuring the City continues to advance toward the goal of making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.

For more information on the Housing for All Strategy, visit www.shapeyourcitysaintjohn.ca