HRM clears out Grand Parade tent encampment amid calls for better shelter options

Update: In a statement released on Thursday, Mar. 14, the HRM says the Grand Parade is now vacant. The municipality adds that “the one remaining individual” who had remained at the public square earlier in the week “accepted an indoor housing option from the Province of Nova Scotia” on the evening of Mar. 13. The square is now closed to the public “for remediation,” the HRM says.

A single ice-fishing tent is all that remained of the former Grand Parade encampment by Monday afternoon. Under a blanket of wet snow, HRM crews continued clearing the downtown square of unhoused residents and their belongings. Roughly two dozen onlookers watched as municipal staffers in trucks and bulldozers erected fences outside of Halifax City Hall—barring entry to where, mere weeks ago, around 20 people had been sleeping rough. The HRM says it is “de-designating” the site, citing a “number of steps” it has taken to support unhoused people in Halifax, including plans to identify potential sites for future long-term housing. Around 9:15am on Monday, Mar. 11, the municipality said in a release it is asking people still at the Grand Parade “to immediately pack their belongings for transportation or storage” and leave the square.

At the Grand Parade in Halifax, where eyewitnesses say HRM crews dismantled a tent this morning while its occupant was away.

Staff are currently erecting fencing around the park. One tent remains.

More to come on @TwitCoast. pic.twitter.com/ERahEbJbgy

— Martin Bauman (HELL OF A RIDE out now) (@martin_bauman) March 11, 2024

The HRM says the province has given assurances that there are enough shelter spaces for everyone sleeping outdoors in Halifax. But some onlookers on Monday say there’s more to the story.

A housing crisis rages on

According to the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia’s “by name” list, more than 1,100 Haligonians were actively unhoused as of Mar. 5, 2024. That’s 400 more Haligonians than were on the list in Dec. 2022—and a figure that has more than quadrupled since 2019.

Shelters have seen unprecedented demand.

“The reality is, there’s nowhere for anyone to go,” Sara Landry, a program manager with Out of the Cold Community Association, told The Coast last winter. “We would love to be able to support more people… and we try our best to, you know, give them blankets and to let them use the phone or things like that. But the reality is, there really is nowhere for folks to go and not enough funding out there for even stopgap measures like tents, let alone emergency shelters.”

In the meantime, places like the Grand Parade and Victoria Park have become popular sites for unhoused Haligonians to pitch tents. For one, both are centrally located: They’re close to things like bus routes, community services, public washrooms and libraries—where people can stay warm and access wifi. And as an affordable housing crisis one provincial cabinet member described as “never seen before” has brought more Nova Scotians to the brink of poverty, the demographic of those tent encampments has changed, too. The Grand Parade encampment included residents like 24-year-old Leah Zinck, who told the Canadian Press that despite working full-time, she and her boyfriend couldn’t find housing.

“There’s no reason that we can’t be paying rent somewhere. But it’s a matter of no one renting to us or it’s too pricey,” Zinck said. (According to a recent Rentals.ca report, Halifax is the most expensive Canadian city to rent in east of Ontario: An average one-bedroom apartment now lists for $1,938 per month.)

Part of that falls on the province. Critics say Nova Scotia—like much of Canada—hasn’t built nearly enough housing to meet demand. And while affordable-housing advocates have lobbied for the province to tighten its fixed-term lease legislation and bolster its rent cap, the province has—thus far—done neither. (Annual rent increases are currently capped at 5% in Nova Scotia, but only until 2025. The cap went up from 2% on Jan. 1, 2024.)

The Halifax Forum opened to unhoused Haligonians as a stopgap measure earlier this year. The Forum has room for 70 beds and provides access to a daily meal and warm showers, but has faced criticism for what it lacks: Privacy. Only curtains separate residents from one another.

“Folks don’t feel safe in shelters where they’re crammed so close to other people,” one shelter system worker, who asked to remain unnamed in order to speak openly, told The Coast. “Living around other people sucks.”

Other outreach workers say that shelters can be overly restrictive, preventing couples from staying together or barring shelter-users from coming and going depending on the time of day.

Was I able to find an open shelter bed today? Yes.
But… only for male identifying folks and only for folks over 19. And no they couldn’t go with their partner, and no their pet wasn’t allowed. And once they were in, they weren’t allowed back out, not even for smoke…

— Girl Friday AKA: Amanda (@Girrl_Friday) March 6, 2024

Shadow of August 2021 lingers

Thus far, the HRM has appeared careful to avoid past mistakes. In August 2021, police and city staff removed shelters from parks across Halifax, prompting hundreds of Haligonians to protest outside the old Halifax library. There, Halifax Regional Police—around 50 officers in total, many wearing riot gear—arrested 24 people and pepper-sprayed crowds. (A majority of the charges against protestors were later dropped.) Last May, the Board of Police Commissioners announced it had hired a Toronto law firm to review the incident, citing “there’s clearly trust to be repaired.”

The latest rounds of tent encampment evictions have unfolded without mass arrests, but not without controversy. According to eyewitnesses, city staff bulldozed a tent on Monday while its owner was away—and despite the protests of bystanders. One video shared with The Coast shows a confrontation between a group of protestors and Max Chauvin, Halifax’s director of housing and homelessness.

“Did you talk to the guy whose tent you’re moving?” one protestor asks Chauvin.

“He’s not here. It’s abandoned,” Chauvin replies.

“It’s not abandoned. He lives there,” another protestor says.

“Well, it’s empty, and it’s being taken out right now,” Chauvin answers.

In Monday’s statement, the HRM says municipal housing and homelessness staff have been in contact “with every person” sheltering at the Grand Parade, offering resources and supports “including transportation” and to have personal belongings “securely stored for up to 30 days.”