Carleton County woman and her children are staying with her oldest son while she waits for word from NB Housing
Nearly two weeks after her Aug. 30 eviction deadline, a Carleton County mother with a disability and her three children remains without permanent housing. She is temporarily staying with her oldest son while continuing to search for a home.
Janet, a pseudonym the River Valley Sun is using to protect the family’s privacy, said the arrangement with her son is working for now, but it has created new challenges for both families.
“It’s going well so far at my son’s,” Janet said. “With five kids going to school, mornings are hectic, but we’re making it work.”
She said the space where she and her children are sleeping would normally be used by her son to store his winter firewood, leaving the family unsure what will happen as colder weather approaches.
“I just feel like I’m uprooting their lives and routines with their own family in their own home,” she said.
Janet said she spoke Sept. 10 with a Housing NB contact about a house on Bubartown Road.
According to Janet, she is at the top of the list for the property, but was told NB Housing has not decided whether it will continue to use the house.
If the property is kept, Janet said she was told it could take anywhere from several months to a year before it is ready to be rented again.
Janet said she asked whether she could do some of the work needed on the house herself so her family could move in sooner. She also asked whether a rent-to-own arrangement was possible.
She said she was told neither was an option.
Janet said she knows people who have previously entered rent-to-own arrangements involving NB Housing properties and does not understand why that option is unavailable to her.
She is also having difficulty reaching her income assistance caseworker.
“I’ve called him every day and had no luck,” she said. “It seems like it’s just phone call after phone call and waiting for them to get back to me.”
Janet’s search for housing began more than a year ago.
She had lived in her previous home for more than a decade. After the previous owner’s death, the property was sold.
In August 2025, Janet was told she would eventually have to leave and began searching for another home, including applying for assistance through NB Housing.
Later letters stated she had to leave by April 30, although they were not formal eviction notices.
In June, she received a formal eviction notice requiring her to leave by Aug. 30.
Her search has taken place as New Brunswick’s subsidized housing waitlist has grown sharply.
According to the New Brunswick Auditor General, 13,129 households, representing 21,712 people, were waiting for subsidized housing as of Dec. 31, 2024. Of those, 6,775 households had been waiting at least two years. In March 2021, the waiting list stood at 5,710 households.
Janet said one barrier she encountered was money connected to a previous marriage.
“They say I still owe $1,300 that my ex-husband owed from my marriage 20 years ago,” Janet previously told the River Valley Sun.
She said she was told she would have to deal with the amount before NB Housing could provide her with a unit.
Other possibilities have also fallen through.
At one point, a house became available that Janet believed could accommodate her family. She said she was later told she would need to spend about $4,000 to bring the property up to fire-code requirements, including sprinkler-related upgrades, and that the cost would not be covered.
Another possibility was a one-bedroom apartment. Janet was prepared to give the bedroom to her children and sleep on the couch, but she said she was told the arrangement would not meet housing requirements.
She has also searched outside government housing.
When the River Valley Sun met with Janet in August, she had a full page of names and contact information for local landlords and property owners. She had repeatedly called those on the list without finding a suitable home.
Shortly before her eviction deadline, Outreach New Brunswick explored another possible rental costing about $1,800 a month.
That possibility did not result in housing for Janet and her children before they had to leave their home.
Janet has also sought assistance from the Office of the Ombud, Bill Hogan, MLA for Woodstock-Hartland, and Outreach New Brunswick.
When contacted for the original story in August, Adam Bowie, a communications representative with the New Brunswick Housing Corporation, said the corporation could not comment on individual cases.
Bowie said demand for social housing was considerable and there was a waitlist for placements. Applicants are assessed based on their housing needs and the programs available to support them.
“When one of our units becomes available, we review the waitlist to identify those with the highest needs and who are seeking housing in that area,” Bowie said.
He added that applicants in crisis may sometimes need to consider housing over a larger area to increase their chances of finding a unit.
For now, Janet and her children have avoided the possibility she feared before Aug. 30 — living in a tent on her son’s property.
But almost two weeks after leaving her home, the arrangement with her son remains temporary, and Janet is still waiting to learn whether the Bubartown Road property could eventually provide her family with a permanent home.
