FAQs: City of Saint John Red Zones
- School
- Licensed Child Care
- Early Learning Centre
- Licensed Afterschool Program
- Special Needs Centre
- Community Centre
- Crisis Care Facility
- Public Playgrounds
- Splashpads
- Sports fields
- Multipurpose Fields
- Park
- Public Spaces
- Skatepark /All Wheels
- Provincially Designated Highway
- Railways
- Harbour Passage Walkway
- Cemeteries
- 200 Metre Buffer: School, Licensed Child C are, Early Learning Centre, Afterschool Program, Special Needs Centre, Community Centre , Crisis Care Facility / Emergency Shelter , and Green Zones
- 100 Metre Buffer: Playgrounds, Splashpads
- 30 Metre Buffer: Sports fields, Multipurpose Fields, Parks, Public Spaces, Skateparks /All Wheels Park Highways, Railways
- 5 Metre Buffer: Harbour Passage Walkway
- Stage One – Starting September 9, 2025– The City and its partners will start to spread awareness of Red Zones and Yellow Zones with the public, especially with individuals experiencing homelessness.
- Stage Two – September 23 to October 5, 2025 – A trained multidisciplinary team of outreach, health care, and city staff will start formally assisting individuals in higher risk Red Zone areas to relocate. After being notified, individuals would have approximately two additional weeks to find other living arrangements, which could include moving to a Yellow Zone, Emergency Shelter, or other transitional housing as available.
- Stage Three - October 6 to October 17, 2025 – Same as Stage Two, except the focus will now include all other areas of Red Zones.
Why are Red Zones needed?
Red Zones protect sensitive places in our city, such as schools, playgrounds, and crisis care facilities. These areas need to stay safe and accessible for everyone, especially children and vulnerable residents. Red Zones also help guide people to safer spaces like Green Zones where services and support are available.
What is a Red Zone?
Red Zones are areas where tents, encampments, or temporary shelters will not be permitted.
Red Zones are properties that contain one or more of the following uses:
What are Red Zone Buffers?
Red Zones also include buffers around the following uses:
These buffers are intended primarily to protect vulnerable populations
How will people be treated when asked to leave a Red Zone?
People will always be treated with compassion, dignity, and respect. Outreach teams will work with individuals to create a plan, help them move, connect them with services, and assist them with relocating if requested. The vast majority of people relocate voluntarily with support.
The City will maintain an Encampment Relocation protocol. If a tent is discovered in a Red Zone, the City will proceed with its Encampment Relocation Protocol.
Step 1: Outreach Services visits the site of a tent, structure, or encampment, and works with individual on a plan to relocate and assists them with options on finding available alternative locations to live such as housing, emergency shelter, a Green Zones, or a Yellow Zone.
Step 2: Outreach Services checks in with individual on their plan and offers further assistance, including assistance in moving if requested.
Step 3 Relocation action is taken by the City or the Saint John Police as needed with Outreach Services providing support and other health care professionals involved in offering care as requested.
What happens if someone refuses to move from a Red Zone?
Outreach staff will visit and offer help first. If after the three-stage process the person has not moved, a multidisciplinary team, that may include bylaw officers or the police, may become involved. If the location is a higher risk – such as a school yard – relocation will take place much faster. The process always starts with compassion, support, and voluntary relocation.
When is the City going to implement the Red Zones:
In three Stages:
The City’s goal is that no tents, encampments, or temporary shelters will remain in Red Zones after October 31, 2025. Relocations after that date will happen as needed.