Acts of kindness: Halifax street navigator on the wins that keep hope alive

HALIFAX, N.S. — Street navigator Lucas Goltz sees things on the regular that would make you cry and break your heart.

The very fact that he’s been able to find housing for only around 15 people in the last three months while there are 10-20 people a week who are becoming homeless (or are homeless and moving into the city because the resources are here) shows the disparity and growing desperation. 

“You feel a little like that mythical guy (Sisyphus) trying to push up that giant stone only for the stone to roll back,” said Goltz, who has been on the job since July.

There are about 200-300 people sleeping rough outside right now in HRM.

The despair is huge, the hopelessness is real. That’s why when he makes progress, when someone gets a roof or someone in the community shows incredible kindness, Goltz revels in the small victories to keep him going.

“For every step forward, you’ve got three or four steps backward because you see more and more people come into the encampments, so for myself at least, you really got to relish those wins.”

Take a recent encounter with a local landlord.

Mom with twin babies desperate for housing

A landlord Goltz had connected with about trying to house a family that was living in a U-Haul (it didn’t work out due to accessibility issues) called him a few weeks ago.

“He said, ‘Hey we have a two-bedroom with den available for a family, let us know.’ At the moment I didn’t have any families but the very next day I get this mom calling me up saying she was losing her housing.”

She said she was a single mom with “two brand new twins,” Goltz said. She was alone and didn’t have a strong support network.

Goltz said he talked to the landlord, who said the apartment on the peninsula was available for six months before he would need to renovate it and offered it to the mom for free.

“I had to ask him again, ‘Did I hear you right?’ I’ve never heard that before.”

Goltz said it’s a beautiful apartment that would easily rent for at least $2,500 a month.

“She had the same response that I had, which was ‘Excuse me?’ She expected to pay something,” Goltz said, adding that the landlord wanted to honour someone in his family who had died.

When asked for an interview, the landlord declined.

“He doesn’t want any credit. . . . He’s like ‘The story is great, tell the story, but leave my name out of it.’”

She’s moving in this week.

“I’ve never been given free rent before, I’d imagine I’d feel pretty darn good, especially if my situation was as dire as hers,” Goltz said. 

Someone’s grandfather

One of the best stories he’s had in his four months on the job is about a 70-year-old man who was released from the hospital onto the streets.

“He’s someone’s grandfather, someone’s father, at the very least, living on the streets and living rough — he wasn’t living in a tent and his mental health was starting to go down pretty fast and he knew it.”

Goltz, along with staff at the Halifax Central Library and Mobile Outreach Street Health, were able to collaborate and got him into the Bridge Shelter in Dartmouth (the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel). It’s not a perfect solution, he said, but it’s a big win because they don’t have to worry about someone who is older with health issues dying on the streets.

“For me, the elderly women and men on the streets is particularly difficult to stomach, and when I walk away from some of those interactions I just cry,” Goltz said. “This is not where you belong. This is not where anyone belongs but they’re just so vulnerable right now.”

A kind gesture at a Canadian Tire

A few weeks ago, Goltz was in a Canadian Tire store with a cart overflowing with tents, sleeping bags, blankets and other items needed for sleeping rough.

A fellow shopper stopped to chat and thought he was going on a big camping trip. He told her these were supplies for people living in tents and she was very empathetic to what he was doing.

When they crossed paths again at the checkout, she tapped him on the shoulder.

“She just handed me a gift card and said, ‘Here, hopefully this helps a little bit,’” he said. “I love to see that from the community because we need a lot more of that.”

Often, he said, people will stop at the Victoria Park encampment and hand out food, gift cards or winter coats.

“Obviously, we need our governments at various levels to do the work that we’ve hired them to do but more than just electing people, we need ourselves to be involved in as much as we possibly can,” Goltz said.

“Those little ways definitely encourage us on the front lines.”

“I got a simple text from him saying, ‘Last night was really warm. Thank you.’ It’s like, that’s a win.”

Little things, big difference

Little things make the world of difference, said Angela Deal. She’s been unhoused since 2019 and living in a tent in Grand Parade for about seven weeks.

While talking with The Chronicle Herald on Thursday, someone approached and handed her two large blankets.

“I’ve never met him before,” she said, shrugging.

Staff from restaurants will often drop off pizza and hot meals.

“It’s very kind, people bring their leftovers, and ever since I’ve been here there has been various amounts of food that is brought down; for that you have to be really, really grateful.”

She’s also grateful for the butane heater in her tent, she said, even if it burns out in a few hours overnight. Waking up cold is miserable — it feels like she’s 80, she said — and she doesn’t know how much longer she’ll be able to last before trying to find room in a shelter somewhere for the winter.

She’s hopeful one day she’ll find housing but for now it’s a surreal experience, living in a tent on Grand Parade.

“You have to pinch yourself sometimes and think ‘Oh my God, Angela, how did this happen?’ You know?”

Darrin Smith has been dropping off food, water, tents and clothing at Grand Parade and other encampments for about two decades in honour of his late wife.

“Oh, it helps them,” he said. “Everybody is happy. The other day I made a cabbage roll casserole and brought it down and everybody down here got a nice hot meal.”

Almost over the edge into hopelessness

One of his clients, a man in Spryfield who has been sleeping outside for months, just recently got into housing. The man’s mental health was suffering and he was on the verge of giving up, Goltz said.

Several times Goltz had to encourage him to stick with him, to have hope he’d have a place to stay one day. Working through the system for income assistance and trying to find a landlord that would help was discouraging.

“For some people, they just kind of throw their hands up and go ‘I can’t do this’ and I say ‘Just trust me. We can get you there.’”

Until one day it works out, and a man who is close to losing all hope moves into a place to call his own.

“I got a simple text from him saying, ‘Last night was really warm. Thank you.’ It’s like, that’s a win.”

Goltz is one of five street navigators/outreach workers in HRM. He works for Downtown Halifax’s Navigator Outreach Program, which is collecting donations through its website for unhoused people in need.