N.S. government readying new winter shelter for people living outdoors — but won’t say where it is

The day of Halifax’s first snowfall of the season, the province confirmed they have a location for a new shelter — but would not say where it is or when it will open.

The provincial government announced three weeks ago it would be funding a new overnight homeless shelter in Halifax Regional Municipality, but it was not ready before Wednesday’s snow.

Community Services Minister Trevor Boudreau said they have secured a location for the 50-bed shelter, but a few things have to be done before an official announcement in the coming “days and weeks.”

“We have to connect power, there’s an inspection that [Halifax Regional Municipality] has to do, a deep clean of this location, and then certainly that’s the goal,”  Boudreau said Wednesday.

“Those things are ongoing and happening as we speak.”

Boudreau said the province has signed a lease for the shelter with the property owner and have a service provider ready to run the space, but would not provide more details.

“We want to make sure we have everything in place so when we announce it can move quickly,” Boudreau told reporters at Province House.

“We know the urgency, we see the snow outside, we’re working as hard as we can.”

Municipal staff said in mid-October that there were at least 200 people sleeping rough outside in Halifax, and that number was expected to grow in the coming months. A waiting list for people who are homeless and looking for stable housing in HRM had 1,014 names as of Oct. 10.

Premier Tim Houston said he recognizes that the need is great and while “there’s more work that has to be done,” the reality is some people will sleep outside this winter.

“That’s a sad fact of the state of the world at this point in time,” Houston said.

NDP leader Claudia Chender said it’s an “embarrassment” that the province won’t share the shelter location.

“I don’t know, they want to announce it and cut a ribbon or something?” Chender said. “It’s insulting to Nova Scotians and it’s especially insulting to the people sleeping in tents.”

Chender said a simple solution would be to offer more people housing — and it’s “unconscionable” that Houston would accept anyone sleeping outside.

The shelter is the first of several new initiatives to tackle homelessness in Halifax and around Nova Scotia, announced by the province last month.

Boudreau said in the legislature this week that the 100 temporary individual shelters built by Pallet should arrive “well before January.” They will be put up in clusters to create villages around Halifax.

People living in RV’s will be allowed to stay in Dartmouth’s Shubie campground, and next summer a tiny home community of about 50 units will be built on the former ball field in Lower Sackville that is now a designated tent site.

But Liberal leader Zach Churchill said the plan is still not enough to handle the current, and growing, numbers of people experiencing homelessness.

“I’m worried that people are going to die this winter cause they’re going to be in tents when we’re below freezing,” he said.

Both Churchill and Chender said the province should be partnering with more church and community groups to find temporary shelter space and get people out of the cold now.