People living at Halifax homeless encampment vow to fight city eviction
Neil Pundick says he’s not going anywhere.
Since October, he’s been living at the Grand Parade homeless encampment in the heart of downtown Halifax. Wednesday he woke up to an eviction notice from the municipality.
The encampment was closed effective that morning. Halifax Regional Municipality also issued the same notice to folks living at four other camping sites it had earmarked for homeless people. There are six other designated encampments that HRM plans to close, but it’s offered no timeline on when that will happen.
Pundick, who says he’s found a supportive community at the downtown site, also says he can’t cope in shelters.
“I’ll get arrested, if I have to,” he said. “I won’t go.”
People living at the encampments have just two weeks to find another place to live. The deadline for them to move is Feb. 26.
Notice was also given to campers at Victoria Park that borders Spring Garden Road, one of the city’s most popular shopping districts. Also set to close are the Geary Street green space in Dartmouth, Saunders Park in west-end Halifax and the ballfield in Lower Sackville.
The municipality and province are opening up 30 new spaces at the recently opened shelter at the Halifax Forum but so far few people living outside have shown interest. They say that the
facility offers no privacy. Many of them have mental health and addiction problems, and the shelter offers minimal support.
It’s unclear what other shelter options are available. HRM officials, including Mayor Mike Savage, held a news conference Wednesday afternoon saying that they would work with people to find a suitable shelter.
Savage played down concerns about a backlash to HRM’s eviction plan and a possible replay of what unfolded in August 2021. The municipality orchestrated a violent crackdown on homeless encampments on parks, calling in police to remove emergency shelters and tents.
“Everyone wants to see a confrontation,” said Savage.
“Give us a chance to work with them. We’re going to work with these people and treat them like human beings.”
Cathie O’Toole, HRM’s chief administrative officer, said compliance officers and a team of support workers would be responsible for removing the tents after Feb. 26. She said that police officers would be there only to observe. It’s unclear whether police would intervene if people tried to interfere with having a tent removed or if they refused to go.
“If we have someone who is refusing to move, we do have the legal authority to remove people,” O’Toole said.
The mayor said HRM is acting because there are enough shelter options for people living rough.Besides the shelter, officials said there would be additional places for people to go, including provincially funded facilities. They include the former DoubleTree hotel in Dartmouth that’s been converted to a shelter, as well as modular housing set up in Halifax and Dartmouth. O’Toole couldn’t say exactly how many spaces are available.
The province announced last October that it was spending $7.5 million to buy 200 tiny shelters manufactured by Pallet, with 100 to be set up in Halifax. The shelters are constructed with access to electricity, washrooms, laundry and on-site support..
The project had been beset by delays but the province says 19 shelters are being set up at Beacon House in Lower Sackville. The Department of Community Services says it’s hoping to move people in before the end of February.
The province also has plans to build a Tiny Home Village at the Lower Sackville encampment, but people won’t be able to move in until the end of the summer. The project includes 52 units that can accommodate up to 62 people.But that’s a long way away for Rick Young, who lives at the Grand Parade encampment. He said he also won’t move to a shelter. He likened a shelter to a jail where people are micromanaged by staff. He said he’s hoping that folks at the encampment would band together to stop the city from closing it.
“It’s not going to happen if we all stick together like a family, like we have been,” he said. “I’m not going. I’m not sleeping in no shelter.”
Steve Wilsack has been supervising the Grand Parade encampment for the last three months. He said he wasn’t consulted before the eviction notices were issued, and the shelter options being offered by the city aren’t good enough.
“We stated several times that the Forum is one form of emergency shelter, it is not the solution for the unhoused,” said Wilsack.
He said he hopes all levels of government can work together in the next couple of weeks to come up with humane housing for people.
He also said that if that doesn’t happen, HRM will have a fight on its hands.
“There’s going to be an outcry,” said Wilsack. “Putting people in shelters is not the right thing to do.”
