News 1. Defund the police report: four months after publication, Halifax still moving slow on recommendations In January, El Jones’ Subcommittee to Define Defunding the Police tabled its report. The report outlined 36 recommendations for policing in Halifax. Generally, it was suggested better oversight, less police involvement in mental health response and traffic enforcement, more […]
Halifax councillors tweak staff plan to designate tent sites in city parks
Describing it as the best of a set of bad options, councillors are moving ahead with a revised version of the staff proposal to create designated tent sites for unhoused Haligonians. But significant questions remain about how and when people currently living in municipal parks will be asked to leave, or whether they’ll be forcibly […]
Municipal staff recommend allowing tents at a handful of Halifax-area parks
Municipal staff are proposing the creation of a limited number of city-sanctioned tent sites in response to the housing crisis, but advocates for unhoused Haligonians worry the recommendation will mean forced eviction for people sleeping in municipal parks. In a staff report coming to council’s virtual meeting on Tuesday, Max Chauvin, parks and recreation special […]
Halifax councillors cool to decriminalizing sheltering in parks
Halifax councillors aren’t ready to allow unhoused people to camp in parks without the threat of criminalization. Sakura Saunders, a member of the P.A.D.S. Community Network, made a presentation to council’s Community Planning and Economic Development Committee’s meeting on Thursday, asking councillors to allow camping in municipal parks using Bylaw P-600. The bylaw bans camping […]
Volunteer group asks HRM to use bylaw to allow unhoused people to continue camping in public parks
Bylaw says camping is only allowed in public parks "by permission"
A volunteer group in HRM is asking the city to invoke part of an existing bylaw that would allow unhoused people to continue camping in public parks. In a media release Friday morning, P.A.D.S. Community Network said they’d met with Mayor Mike Savage and several HRM councillors to discuss Bylaw P-600, which prohibits camping in […]
Volunteer network says it won’t help dismantle People’s Park after CAO Dubé asks for group’s help to “peacefully” close park
An encampment at a Halifax park, where unhoused people have lived in makeshift shelters since August, could soon be dismantled. People have been living in tents in Meagher Park, on the corner of Chebucto Road and Dublin Street, all fall and winter. Known to volunteers, residents, and community members as “People’s Park,” the site became […]
Halifax Pavilion to be used as temporary shelter, other housing projects secure funding
A former all-ages music venue in Halifax is being converted into an overnight shelter, but only for a few weeks. In a news release on Tuesday, the provincial Department of Community Services announced that the municipally-owned building on Cogswell Street on the Halifax Common will be used as a 25-bed shelter, open from 9pm to […]
Living on the streets can kill
Morning File, Tuesday, December 14, 2021
News 1. Omicron is here — and some restrictions are coming back At least 40 Nova Scotians with COVID-19 have tested positive for the Omicron variant, and the StFX super-spreader event has led to positive cases at a seniors’ residence and at Dalhousie University. Yesterday, 114 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Nova Scotia. […]
“Call back the house until everybody’s got one:” Protestors demand province call emergency session of legislature to deal with housing crisis
This article was written by Ethan Lycan-Lang and Leslie Amminson. “Call back the house until everybody’s got one.” That was the chant repeated by a crowd of demonstrators gathered outside Province House in Halifax Sunday afternoon. Wrapped in scarves, toques, and winter coats, dozens of people blocked off part of George Street, demanding the provincial […]
As winter approaches, residents of People’s Park, volunteers, and neighbours wait for a better housing solution
One volunteer says people "do not want to allow ourselves or the community to get enticed or get distracted" by the city's purchase of new modular units that will only meet the needs of a small percentage of the homeless population.
At any given moment, a car might pull up to a small park at the corner of Chebucto Road and Dublin Street in Halifax. The driver will get out and talk to a man standing on the sidewalk. The pair will exchange “hellos” and “how are yous.” Then the driver will pass along food, cash, […]