Municipal councillor says new Dartmouth shelter not enough to meet demand

A Dartmouth councillor says while a new shelter in his area is welcome, more are needed around the Halifax region to better help the growing number of people experiencing homelessness.

Coun. Sam Austin of Dartmouth Centre said he felt “relief” seeing the province’s recent announcement that the former St. Paul Church on Windmill Road will soon become an overnight shelter.

Austin said it’s just blocks from a nearby homeless encampment, so it’s convenient for those people as well as others in downtown Dartmouth.

The new space will have 50 beds at first, with capacity to grow to 100 if needed.

But Austin said there are more than 200 people sleeping rough in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) now, with half on the Halifax side. Dartmouth has about a quarter of the entire number, with the other quarter in Sackville.

“It’s insufficient for what the need is out there,” Austin said Monday.

“I’m very afraid that someone will suffer this winter, potentially even die, right? Like that’s where we are.”

Austin said more shelters should be opened in Halifax and Sackville to meet people where they are, and allow them to stay where they have connections to family and existing community support.

To ask people around the municipality to come to Dartmouth each night doesn’t fit the “basic reality of people who are in survival mode,” Austin said.

Halifax municipal staff told council in October that about 10 people are becoming homeless every week, and they expect the number of people sleeping rough to reach 400 by next June.

Austin said he’s asked for the service provider, 902 Man Up, to have a community meeting with surrounding neighbours to give them a sense of how things will work and to respond to any concerns.

The group’s co-executive director, Peter Campbell, said they plan to do exactly that because being open with the surrounding community is vital for everyone.

Campbell said that strategy has served them well at Halifax’s North Park Street shelter they have run for the past year, and last winter at Dartmouth’s Christ Church.

“This [isn’t] just one person’s situation. It’s the whole community, you know, Halifax, HRM in general, we want everybody to know that there are places out there where people can go and get warm and feel safe,” Campbell said.

Campbell said for now they will have about six staff members, plus security, for the overnight shelter with hours from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

He said getting the right staff is key to connecting with people dealing with homelessness, and they often hire people who have that lived experience.

Campbell said he’s confident they could also staff other shelters if the province wanted to open more.

“That’s one thing we’re good at. We can make it happen quick. We just put a call in our communities and we get the people there,” Campbell said.

Province open to other options

Minister of Community Services Trevor Boudreau said Monday he will be looking to see how high the demand is for the Windmill Road shelter once it opens.

If there are more opportunities to partner with more landlords for different shelter locations, the province will “continue to look at those options,” Boudreau said.

“We’re continuing to work at it and we know there’s more to do,” he said.

Boudreau said he’s hopeful 100 individual temporary shelters, made by a company called Pallet, will make a difference when they arrive. He said they are expected next month, and the province is working with HRM to find exact locations for the shelters.