Halifax council says no to tents on the Common, passes several homeless initiatives

After a lengthy debate, Halifax council voted Tuesday night against permitting a designated tent area on the Common to shelter homeless residents.

The councillors were united in the idea that a homeless tent encampment was not a palatable idea but the debate was about whether a temporary encampment, as suggested by a staff report, could be acceptable, especially if few alternatives exist.

“This is not a good short-term solution, we know it’s not but there are no good options for this crisis we face right now,” Coun. Waye Mason (Halifax South Downtown) said when the staff homeless report was presented.

“This is about managing the crisis that the province finds itself in and how it impacts Halifax,” Mason said. “Allowing tent encampments is not the cause of homelessness, it’s a symptom of a broken system, and we’re all proud of our beautiful parks and sports fields. … We don’t want to be denied access to these spaces that we spent generations building and we don’t want to feel unsafe walking around our neighbourhoods, so why is this even being proposed?”

“We need deeply affordable housing. That is housing geared to income. It has to be safe, supportive, sustainable and accessible.”

Max Chauvin, director of housing and homelessness for HRM

It was being proposed, according to Max Chauvin, director of housing and homelessness for HRM, because the municipality is in the midst of a homelessness crisis that is growing at an alarming rate.

“Citizens see this every day as they walk around and we see growing numbers of tents,” Chauvin said, presenting a municipal staff report on the crisis and potential short-term remedies.

The staff report suggested using two pieces of the Halifax Commons as encampment sites, a smaller encampment at the corner of Cogswell and North Park streets that would accommodate about 20 tents, and the conversion of the two crusher dust ball diamonds at the north side of the Common, when the playing season ends on Oct. 31, into a larger homeless encampment.

The ball diamond site is close to a year-round public bathroom, providing residents sheltering outside with toilet facilities, running water, and power and it is also in proximity to needed services, Chauvin said.

“We would look at other sites as necessary,” Chauvin said.

Council passed four recommendations from the staff report that included directing staff to lease private property, if possible, as locations for people experiencing homelessness to shelter; establishing additional encampments, temporary housing, or tiny home locations on all types of municipality-owned properties; writing to the province requesting their immediate plans to create deeply affordable housing options in HRM; and exploring the options of the non-park property types, as well as campgrounds, and outdoor facilities, as locations for unhoused persons who are sheltering in a vehicle.

Councillors voted 12-4 to scuttle the designated tent area in the Common by turning aside a staff report resolution to endorse an exception to the June 14, 2022, criteria prohibiting the use of active sports fields for homeless encampments.

In his presentation, Chauvin said point-in-time counts and local service provider shelter counts show that five years ago there were 18 people unhoused in HRM.

“As of July, there are 178 (sleeping rough) and we believe that number has grown since that count,” he said.

The by-name list drafted by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia indicates as of Aug. 29, there are 1,012 people experiencing homelessness in HRM, an almost 60 per cent increase since August 2022 and an approximate 500 per cent increase since 2018.

Chauvin said the by-name list is growing by 10 people a week.

He said in the past year the province has opened more than 300 beds or housing units.

“The problem could be considerably worse.”

Chauvin said HRM has designated five locations for tents, four of which were endorsed by council in June 2022 and a fifth which was added in Lower Sackville.

“In addition to those five locations, there are 62 other locations that residents in the past year have used for sheltering,” he said. Some of them are large encampments and others are smaller, one- or two-tent camps.

There are currently 30 active locations beyond the sites endorsed by the municipality.

“We need deeply affordable housing,” Chauvin offered as a solution to the crisis. “That is housing geared to income. It has to be safe, supportive, sustainable and accessible.”

Chauvin said the private market can’t build and operate that type of housing by itself, it needs government assistance.

Chauvin said 30,000 households in HRM are in core housing need, meaning they spend more than 30 per cent of income on housing. Some of those households are in deep core housing need, spending more than 50 per cent of income on housing, and there are examples of households spending 70, 80 and 90 per cent of income on housing, he said.

Chauvin said a five per cent rent increase can push some people into homelessness.

He said most of the five designated tent encampment locations are overcrowded, with one of them having 30 people living in a space best suited for four people.

He said if the city were to designate park spaces to make up the lagging space, it would need to designate 18 to 20 parks immediately and that number would double by next year.

Chauvin said the options provided in the staff report are Band-Aid in nature.

“Some of them are high needs people, some of them have mental health and drug issues and they are not getting the support they need but increasingly what we are seeing are seniors, children, families, people who simply can’t find a place they can afford to live.  … More and more people are experiencing homelessness who are our neighbours, they are just everyday people.”

Coun. Waye Mason

The staff report suggested making Grand Parade a designated encampment location, reducing the numbers from the current 20-plus tents and putting the tents in one section of Grand Parade to allow use for other purposes.

The southern end of Victoria Park would also be designated, moving tents from the walkway and event areas in the park over time.

Mason said 200 people are living in tents now in HRM.

“The provincial, social and supportive housing system has failed 200 people,” he said. “Let’s think about how horrible that it is, that, yeah some of them are high needs people, some of them have mental health and drug issues and they are not getting the support they need but increasingly what we are seeing are seniors, children, families, people who simply can’t find a place they can afford to live. Some are on social assistance, a shocking number, including several I’ve talked to, are employed, have cars and are driving to work from their tent.

“It’s easy to pretend that the people in tents have chosen homelessness and they are facing incredible challenges but increasingly these challenges are related to affordability and the lack of affordable housing. More and more people are experiencing homelessness who are our neighbours, they are just everyday people.”

Mason and several other councillors laid the fault for a lack of affordable housing directly at the feet of the provincial government.

Coun. Shawn Cleary, (Halifax West Armdale), said the staff homeless report was the most sobering and shocking report he’s seen during his time on council.

“We are overwhelmed by this problem,” Cleary said. “As the level of government with the least amount of resources, it’s stunning. … The problem is getting exponentially worse and I’m not sure how we can address the problem with tens of thousands of dollars.”

Cleary said as is the case in a fire, flood or hurricane, council has to consider providing money from reserve accounts.

“We may be at the point where we just say, forget it, let’s just dip into our reserves and provide millions of dollars because we are not even getting close to tackling this problem.”

Cleary said the idea of more tents in public parks and spaces is problematic.

“I’m very concerned about the Common because if you put one tent on the Common, we’ve lost control,” Cleary said. “More tents will show up on the south side, by the skatepark, more will show up on the tennis courts.”

Quizzed about alternative designated tent sites if the Common were turned down, Chauvin pointed to several municipal parks, including Point Pleasant.

Mayor Mike Savage hinted that the provincial government has something in the works to alleviate the impact of bitter winter elements for people who might otherwise be forced to sleep outside.