After nearly 30 years of providing shelter to those most desperately in need, Newman’s Boarding House in Happy Valley-Goose Bay is now officially closed.
Around 5 p.m. on Monday, April 14, the 30 or so residents ate the last meal ever served at Newman’s: a feed of Mary Brown’s chicken.
Then they were told, as of the next morning, the boarding house could no longer serve them.
Terry Newman, son of boarding house owners Leonard and Nona Newman, says his family has been left with little support over the years.
Now, because of financial constraints and lack of resources, the Newman’s have no choice but to close down.
The residents of Newman’s Boarding House are, for the most part, low income and have nowhere else to turn.
Newman says calling it a boarding house is actually misleading.
It has become Labrador’s de facto homeless shelter.
Newman claims that the provincial government and others in the Happy Valley-Goose Bay community have not done enough to help keep the boarding house functional.
One of the biggest problems facing the boarding house is money.
The Newman family has operated the boarding house since its existence.
Between 2007 and 2012 Newman helped his parents with operating the boarding house.
He claims he did it all voluntarily, without receiving any wages.
Newman claims that he and his family have been looking for more financial support and resources over the years from social services to run the place.
According to Newman, his family was told recently by social services that they could receive an extra $100 per resident a month.
But that wouldn’t come close to providing the support needed to operate the boarding house.
Newman and his family were hoping that, at some point, the boarding house could have been turned over to a charitable organization.
But the two buildings need so much work it no longer seems viable.
This story is courtesy of the Labradorian.