Recent fires, explosion at Halifax homeless encampments ‘new normal’: advocate

The fiery explosion happened right underneath one of Halifax’s busiest traffic arteries.

A video of it circulated on social media: billowing brown smoke; flames reaching up to the Barrington Street ramp feeding a steady stream of traffic to Angus L Macdonald Bridge.  

Last Tuesday’s fire occurred at one of the six camping sites that city council set aside for homeless people.

Halifax Fire showed up and put out the blaze but couldn’t determine the cause of the explosion.

But there were signs. About nine metres from the site of the explosion sat about two dozen used propane cannisters in a pile of garbage. People who called 911 said they heard popping and explosions, according to Halifax Fire.  

There were also extension cords running power to tents in the encampment. One cord was melted just beside the site of the explosion.

It was the second encampment fire in HRM in just over two weeks.

Get used to it, says Gayle Collicutt, manager of Supported Housing with Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia.

The number of people being forced into homelessness in the city is increasing, she says. With winter coming they need to stay warm, and accidents can happen.  

“Unfortunately, I think this is a new normal,” said Collicutt. “This isn’t changing any time soon.

“More and more people who are in traditionally low-income housing are losing their homes.”

The city is getting propane into the hands of people living in encampments. Street navigators, funded by HRM, deliver fuel to people living at the camp sites.

SaltWire spoke with someone living at Victoria Park on Friday who said she received a cannister from a street navigator the day before.  

Collicutt says the city and province need to make sure people in encampments don’t freeze to death. The most obvious way to do that is to build heated shelters at each of the six official encampment sites in the city.

Seven weeks ago, the province announced it was spending $7.5 million on 200 single-room pallet shelters for people living rough. Half of them were earmarked for HRM.

The province has not said where they’ll be going and when people can move in. A spokesperson for the Department of Community Services says the province is working very closely with the manufacturer and other partners to set up the “villages.” 

The 100 shelters earmarked for HRM are well short of what’s required, says Collicutt. About five times as many shelters are needed in HRM alone, she says.

“The solution that we’ve all been screaming about is that we need housing. Far more than 100 pallet shelters in HRM. I keep asking myself, what’s it going to take to make that happen?”

A man was found dead in a parkade in Halifax last winter. That tragedy wasn’t enough, she says.  He had a history of homelessness and addiction. Collicutt suggests the province and city will act with urgency only after more deaths – more deaths outside the stereotypical homeless population, she says.

“Is it going to take someone’s grandmother dying in a tent?”

SaltWire asked the city whether it plans to build any shelters at homeless camping sites, to which it responded in an email, that it’s the province’s responsibility to “lead addressing homelessness.” The spokesperson said it would be “best to connect with the (province) regarding additional shelters.”

The city says it will continue to provide propane cannisters to people living rough, while “(balancing) the needs for providing warmth in frigid temperatures, as well as fire safety for those living rough.”

Street navigators and Halifax Fire provide fire safety information to people living rough, including how to safely use propane cannisters, according to the city.