Homeless population growing: advocate
With winter coming and signs of community COVID spread, the province needs to open up hotel rooms for a homeless population in Halifax Regional Municipality that's doubled in the last year, says an advocate and Halifax social work professor.
“There's a huge fear in the community," said Jeff Karabanow. “We could be dealing with this issue pretty succinctly but if we wait, the numbers are going to increase as there will be more and more people suffering,” said Karabanow, co-founder of Halifax emergency shelter Out of the Cold.
Right now there are at least 500 homeless people living in HRM, 375 of whom have been homeless for six months or more, according to data collected by Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia. About 50 people are sleeping rough, on the streets or in forested areas, said Karabanow.
The Dalhousie University professor of social work said the Nova Scotia government needs to show the same urgency in dealing with the city's homeless population as it did during the early part of the pandemic when the province was in lockdown. The province funded two pop-up shelters and later partnered with the federal government to house roughly 200 people from late March to the end June. That's when the funding ended and people were back on the streets.
COVID-19 also dramatically decreased the number of shelter beds available due to physical distancing rules. Available shelter beds went from 175 to about 125. Finding affordable housing is next to impossible, said Karabanow. Prior to COVID-19, the vacancy rate was at one per cent in the city and the affordable housing stock at five per cent of the entire market in HRM.
The province hasn't been
investing in affordable housing so developers have moved in, buying up what's available. Those units are being renovated and replaced by higher end development, causing rents to skyrocket and hundreds of low-income renters being evicted during the pandemic.
“The feds and province and municipality agree there's a lot more calls for housing but that's not going to happen today or tomorrow," said the professor. "We need something on a bigger scale and something that can follow public health protocols. That's why we need to be putting people in hotels.”
Out of the Cold was the first shelter to move people into hotels back in March. Karabanow said the experiment went well
for both parties. One hotel has shown interest in partnering again.
But the province is showing little interest in entertaining the idea. The Chronicle Herald inquired with Municipal Affairs and Housing about how it intends to address the rising homeless population in HRM and if hotel housing is a possibility, but the department didn't address the question.
A department spokesperson said the province has made the single largest investment in homelessness in the province's history in the last budget with the Integrated Action Plan to Address Homelessness. The plan does not include any residential developments but does include several new staffing positions. Those include 15 additional housing support workers in HRM and four diversion workers across the province to assist individuals in transitioning from Health and Corrections facilities to housing when required.
Since June 1, the local housing locator was able to access 140 units to support families and individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness, said department spokeswoman Krista Higdon.
NDP housing critic Lisa Roberts shares Karabanow's concern about the urgent issues facing the homeless in the city.
She wrote a letter to Housing Minister Chuck Porter in September urging him to consider opening up hotels to the homeless.
“This is a pandemic and many hotels are empty, whether you acquire them, pay them per night," said Roberts. "There are hotels interested in partnering with the government."
So far the province has shown little movement in dealing with either homeless problem and an affordable housing shortage.
“It's like they are showing up to the table with nothing,” said Roberts.
Since losing funding at the end of June, the 25-bed shelter has been on the hunt for a new home. Karabanow said a space in downtown Halifax has been selected and he expects the upgraded facility to reopen early next month.