St. Stephen requesting extra security for its homeless shelter

St. Stephen is asking the province to fund enhanced security for their homeless shelter located in the middle of town. NEARBY RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES SAY THEY ARE CONCERNED BY WHAT THEY'RE SEEING IN THE AREA AND SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE. Sometimes people scream violently, and this can happen at any time, day or night. Violence screams with obscenities at people, threatening to kill people and things like that. And people even walking around with weapons like baseball bats and axes and things like that. Fitch lives just across the road from Lighthouse Lodge. He thinks extra security at the site would help make neighbors, like himself, feel more comfortable. Better security, especially if it was an external security force, not a group controlled by the nonprofit that runs the shelter. I think that there would be a chance that it could be done quite well. And that could maybe make life around here a little bit better. Mayor Steve Backman thinks so too. That's why he wants to hire security specifically prepared to help de-escalate situations. That's where we start to get people into the fight-or-flight response, or they're having a bad reaction to drugs, or even, heaven forbid, the neighbors start getting a little upset, so upset that they start inciting things, that there's trained de-escalators and people can bring that temperature back down. Housing Minister David Hickey recently acknowledged that the shelter should never have been built in its current location. The situation in St. Stephen is not acceptable. The former government put in a shelter without consulting the community in the face of advice from the municipality that said we should not be doing this. However, Hickey says hiring security isn't his department's responsibility and that would be up to the Department of Social Development. That department hasn't yet responded to CBC's request for comment. As for Mayor Backman, he says he'll continue to pursue his request for added security while residents await long-term solutions. Their lives have been severely impacted by drugs, even though they've never taken any drugs, and the crime and associated activity that follows. CBC asked Lighthouse Lodge for comment, but they declined, saying their opinion has no impact on what the municipality chooses to do.