A leafless tree hangs over a city park filled with work trucks. In the background, a yellow crane hangs over a building under construction. A red ice fishing shelter covered with a blue tarp sits in the corner of the park.
Grand Parade cleanup on Monday, March 10, 2024. Credit: Suzanne Rent

As of Monday afternoon, only one person remains in the former designated encampment in Grand Parade in Halifax.

The municipality issued a news release on Monday morning that said there were four people still living in the encampment in Grand Parade. The Examiner stopped by the park Monday morning and trucks and staff were working on site. Two of the red ice fishing shelters were still in place. A grassy area where other tents and shelters once stood is now surrounded by a fence.

There was no sign of Halifax Regional Police officers in uniform at Grand Parade.

A red fence surrounds a grassy area in a town square filled with large work trucks. A small red ice fishing shelter is along a stone wall in the background. A yellow crane hangs over a building under construction.
Cleaning of former Grand Parade encampment on Monday, March 10, 2024. Credit: Suzanne Rent

On Monday afternoon, the municipality sent out another statement that said as of 1pm there was only one person left in Grand Parade.

“Municipal staff are continuing to work with the province and their service providers to provide this person with resources and supports for them to accept an indoor option, if they choose to do so,” the statement said.

Parks now closed off to public

Monday marked two weeks since the Feb. 26 eviction deadline of five encampment sites across HRM. When the city announced on Feb. 7 it was evicting residents of the encampments later in the month, there were 55 people living at those sites.

The eviction process has been what the city called a “measured” process since. Victoria Park off Spring Garden Road was cleared out on Friday afternoon and clean up continued at that site.

Saunders Park, Geary Street green space in Dartmouth, and the encampment at the ball field on Cobequid Road in Lower Sackville are all vacant. The Lower Sackville site will be the location for a tiny home community that will soon be under construction.

A blue sign that says "civic historic park Victoria Park" with a small map stands in the foreground as two workers in black clothing and orange and yellow safety vests drag garbage cans along the grass. Behind them is a bulldozer and an apartment highrise.
Crews cleaning up at Victoria Park on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Credit: Suzanne Rent

Grand Parade, Victoria Park, Geary Street green space, and the ball field on Cobequid Road remain closed off to the public. Saunders Park is now open.

There are still four designated sites in HRM: a greenway on Barrington Street, Lower Flinn Park, the berms on University Avenue, and Green Road Park in Dartmouth. The site on Barrington Street has power.

The population of people living at Green Road has more than doubled to 30 people.

Municipal housing staff and street navigators are offering support to the people living in the four designated encampments.

Suzanne Rent is a writer, editor, and researcher. You can follow her on Twitter @Suzanne_Rent and on Mastodon

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  1. I have lived within 2 blocks of the Victoria Park encampment since it began. It started to become a problem by December because by then a few of the guys who are your stereotypical “druggies” started making their way down South Park Street and were sitting on doorsteps with their sleeves rolled up trying to find a vein to stick with a needle. And now University Avenue has become an encampment.