Halifax to designate new homeless encampment sites as remaining spaces overflow

Halifax is looking to designate new encampment locations for unhoused people now that the remaining authorized sites have double the number of recommended residents and new tents are popping up in city parks.

The municipality’s director of housing and homelessness said in an interview Monday there are more than 50 people sleeping outdoors at the four green spaces the city has kept as designated encampment sites — which were recommended to provide space for 26 people total.

Max Chauvin said he’s aware of another 20 or so people sleeping in tents in other spots around the city. “But I have no doubt that there are other people sleeping rough who are in a place that we don’t know they’re there,” he said.

The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia says that as of last Tuesday, 1,222 people in Halifax were reporting that they were homeless. Of those people, 864 are considered chronically homeless, which means they have been homeless for at least six months over the past year, or have spent a cumulative 18 months homeless over the past three years.

Chauvin said municipal staff are looking at new potential encampment locations that could be designated for tenting on a temporary basis until provincially run housing projects are up and running. 

“Encampments are not good places for anybody,” Chauvin said. 

“They’re not healthy for the residents who are living in them and they’re not good for the community around them … They’re necessary sometimes because there aren’t any other options,” he said.

Work is ongoing at the site of a “tiny home community” that will house 70 people in 60 units in Lower Sackville, Department of Community Services spokesperson Christina Deveau said, and the province hopes to have the first residents move in “later this year.”

In early October, the province announced it was spending $7.5 million on 200 self-contained, 70-square-foot structures made by a U.S. company called Pallet Shelter, with half of them earmarked for the Halifax area. Since then, 19 Pallet shelters have been set up in the Halifax region.

Deveau declined to say when the remaining shelters will be up and running in Halifax or where they will be installed.

In early February, Halifax asked unhoused people living in tents in three previously authorized homeless encampments to leave by Feb. 26 because they claimed that better options are available — including a new shelter at the Halifax Forum. On March 4, city staff disposed of tents, food waste and unclaimed belongings and fenced off two of the sites. The city said it has so far spent about $58,000 on clearing out the three sites, including one in front of City Hall.

The city currently authorizes encampment locations in four parks and green spaces in Halifax and across the harbour in Dartmouth. But a number of tents have appeared in other parks and city spaces, including Point Pleasant Park, the Halifax Common and in front of the old Halifax library — the site of a 2021 clash between police and protesters.

Chauvin said at this time people camping in unauthorized locations won’t be asked to leave “in large part because we need a place for them to go.” But, he added, “we will ask somebody to move if they set up in a cemetery or next to a daycare or next to a school.”

Chauvin declined to say what areas are being considered as potential new encampment sites, but said staff are looking for places that are centrally located with easy access to transit, grocery stores, pharmacies and services. 

“Some people who live in encampments are working, some of them are students going to school, so the ability to get to their job or get to class … is really important,” he said.

A discussion about potential homeless encampment locations will be brought forward to the next Halifax council meeting, scheduled for May 7.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2024.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press