Mayoral candidate says Halifax attracts unhoused people, advocates say that’s untrue

HALIFAX — A candidate for Halifax mayor says the municipality’s approach to homeless encampments has encouraged unhoused people from across the country to move to the city to live in tents — a claim housing advocates and city councillors say is untrue.

Andy Fillmore, who was a Liberal member of Parliament for Halifax for nine years, said police have told him the city is attracting homeless people from outside the province — a fact he attributes to the municipality providing support like outhouses and water at city-designated encampment sites.

In an interview, the mayoral candidate said that after an August 2021 protest over encampment evictions turned violent, Halifax council “stopped enforcing rules about removing tents from undesignated sites, they increased the support.”

“Those are signals that were broadcast to other jurisdictions and have the effect of bringing people to Halifax,” Fillmore said.

The former MP says that Halifax police, volunteers helping at local encampments, and housing advocates from other provinces have told him “a great many of the folks out of the 1,200 living in tents are neither Haligonians nor Nova Scotians.”

Halifax Regional Police Const. Martin Cromwell said that information did not come from the police chief’s office, “nor do we have data at (the city police) to support it.”

Housing advocates Nikki Greer and Steve Wilsack, both of whom have worked with people living in Halifax encampments for months, say the vast majority of homeless residents they work with are local.

“There are more resources in other provinces, with better mental health support. I can’t fathom why someone would think Halifax would be appealing,” Greer said Tuesday. She added that there are, however, homeless Nova Scotians living rurally who may move to the city, where there are more resources compared to the areas they’re from.

Wilsack echoed similar sentiments. “It doesn’t even seem logical for someone who’s homeless to spend money on travel just to get over here because we have outhouses and water dropped off. That’s not enough incentive,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “So based on my perspective, that isn’t the case.”

Waye Mason, a Halifax councillor who is also running for mayor, says Fillmore’s claim is baseless and that data collected by the city show that 61 per cent of homeless people in the area have lived in Halifax for more than 10 years. The majority of the remaining 39 per cent have been in the city between eight and five years, Mason said, making Fillmore’s claim “provably untrue.”

Mason said Fillmore’s statements lack compassion and aim to turn voters against people living in encampments.

“We’re talking about … people who live in tents who are already vulnerable, and saying that somehow they deserve to be treated differently than — quote-unquote — real residents, and that is cruel.”

Pam Lovelace, another Halifax councillor running for mayor, said she’s not aware of unhoused people flocking to the city because of the presence of designated encampments. However, she said she’s aware of situations in which people from outside the province have come to Halifax for a number of reasons and ended up without a home.

“We do not have a closed border, and this autocratic approach of Mr. Fillmore is quite dangerous,” she said.

Both councillors also take issue with Fillmore’s pledge to evict people within 24 hours of them setting up a tent outside a city-designated encampment.

“My position is, why shouldn’t we enforce the rules at the same time as figuring out what the people inside the tents need?” Fillmore said.

“I believe strongly that we can map the people in need to the supports they need very quickly and bring a close to all of the encampments as quickly as possible,” Fillmore said, though he could not provide a specific timeline.

Federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle said in an email Tuesday she is “deeply concerned when I hear people pointing to forcibly removing encampments as a solution.”

“We know this makes things worse. Forced evictions violate people’s human rights and cause people more harm. They destabilize people and remove them from their support systems and the tools they need to survive,” she said when asked about Fillmore’s promised approach to managing tents.

Houle’s review of homeless encampments, published in February, concludes that until adequate housing with support is available to those in need, Canada must “protect the life, dignity and the human rights of people living in encampments.”

Mason and Lovelace both oppose tent evictions, and voiced concerns about that part of Fillmore’s platform.

“We need empathy in our leaders, and clearly Mr. Fillmore lacks empathy,” Lovelace said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2024.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press