There's currently a waiting list of over a thousand at the regional level. It tends to be an annual application that's required in order to keep your name on the list. It's very difficult, because within that cohort of folks who have housing needs, there's some triage that's undertaken, certainly for those fleeing domestic violence and for those with young children. We have a real problem in this community with non-elderly singles—NES—that population that doesn't fit into one of those priority areas. It's not uncommon for them to be on a waiting list for such a long period of time that they eventually drop off or really don't have an expectation of getting affordable housing.
Affordable housing is a very difficult file. I know that Mr. Dickinson will be commenting in the next panel on some housing issues, but again, it's a question of scale.
At the Human Development Council, we are the community entity under the homelessness partnering strategy for Moncton, Fredericton, and Saint John, the three principal urban areas in the province. It's a model that I think works very well. It embraces community. It requires a community plan on the community issues in an RFP. A community-based committee determines the allocation of funds, but in Saint John, for instance, there's less than a quarter of a million dollars a year, about $220,000 per year, to deal with homelessness. While that is a lot of money, it's not a lot of money, and it makes it very difficult, for the reasons of scale that I spoke of earlier.
There is a long waiting list for social housing and for affordable housing in this region.