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HALIFAX — The Halifax Regional Municipality is telling people living at five of 11 authorized homeless encampments that they must leave, but some unhoused residents say they won’t go until they have an option that’s better than staying in a tent.
The city said in a statement Wednesday it’s removing the special designations that allowed unhoused people to set up tents on city land, including at the downtown Grand Parade, which is home to about 20 people.
Ric Young, who’s been sleeping in a tent at the square in front of city hall for about six months, said he isn’t leaving and doubts his neighbours will either.
“We’re all staying. They’re going to have to try to kick us out of here,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
The municipality said people sheltering at these parks will be asked to leave by Feb. 26, adding that it is closing the encampments because they pose a safety risk and there are “better options” in place.
Nova Scotia recently opened a $3-million, 50-bed emergency shelter at the Halifax Forum, but some unhoused residents say the facility is worse than a tent because it lacks privacy and security. The shelter, which is in an auditorium-like space with cots and yellow curtains between beds, doesn’t provide the same level of safety, comfort or support afforded to people tenting in the downtown square, Young said.
In October, the Halifax Regional Municipality designated 11 sites around the city as tenting areas for people without housing.
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said Wednesday the designated sites were “always intended to be a stopgap measure until better, fixed-roof options were available for people who are homeless.”
“And now we have a variety of options that are in place,” he told a news conference.
City officials said these options include hotel rooms, transitional housing and more beds at the Forum shelter, which brings its capacity up to 100 beds.
Max Chauvin, Halifax’s director of housing and homelessness, said Wednesday the Nova Scotia government has confirmed that there is enough room in hotels, modular units and transitional housing, so that people who object to using a shelter have options.
The provincial Department of Community Services said in an emailed statement that between the region’s 375 shelter beds, supportive housing and a village of 19 single-unit shelters that’s set to open by the end of February, there are “enough indoor spaces for people in the encampments who want to come inside.”
But Steve Wilsack, a volunteer who’s been providing support to the unhoused people at the Grand Parade for nearly three months, said he has a hard time believing those housing options exist.
“If there were viable places available, I can guarantee that everyone staying here would be gone tomorrow,” he said in an interview Wednesday. He said residents who woke up Wednesday to notices from the city on their tents are “traumatized” at the prospect of being kicked out of the encampment.
In August 2021, a demonstration in downtown Halifax turned violent after police were directed by the city to clear public grounds of tents and temporary wooden shelters built by advocacy groups for the homeless. Clashes broke out between police and demonstrators on streets lined with shops and cafés, and protesters were sprayed in the face with chemical irritants.
Halifax’s chief administrative officer Cathie O’Toole said Wednesday that the city hopes the unhoused residents will leave voluntarily before Feb. 26.
“But if we do get to the point where we have someone who is refusing to move beyond the notice, we do have the legal authority to remove people,” O’Toole said.
“However, our approach is going to be not one of laying hands on people and we’re not going to have police involved, so police may be present just to observe to make sure there is no physical altercation that impacts either the safety of the residents at the homeless encampments or the safety of the staff or service providers or passersby who may be observers.”
The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia reported that as of Tuesday, there were 1,123 people that self-reported as being actively homeless in the Halifax area, and on Jan. 25 the Nova Scotia government said in a statement there are 355 shelter beds in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2024.
Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press