Last tent standing
City clears Grand Parade of all but one holdout
A forklift dumped one of the last fishing huts in the back of a dump truck.
Two were trashed, leaving one left standing at Grand Parade Monday morning. Dave is the man living there and he’s waiting to have a knee and hip replaced. He refused to leave and his tent was surrounded by people who said they were there to support him.
A couple of hours earlier, the city issued a news release saying that four people living there were being told to immediately pack their belongings “for transportation or storage and vacate the de-designated location.”
Just over a month ago, the city closed five of 10 outdoor tenting sites it had earmarked for people sleeping rough in Halifax. At the time, the city said there were 55 people living in these designated encampments including Grand Parade and Victoria Park – another downtown encampment. Dave is the last holdout of the five decommissioned sites.
From the beginning, the city said it would take a measured approach, making sure people would be treated humanely and have a place to go out of the cold. It's unclear where the encampment residents have ended up. The province has opened spaces in a hotel and modular housing. But in recent weeks, the only option has been a recently opened shelter at the Halifax Forum.
Last Monday, city officials went into Victoria Park and put people on notice there that they had to go. The park is now empty and fenced in.
‘WARNING TO GO WHERE?’
A woman who showed up to Grand Parade Monday morning said she's disappointed with the way the crisis has been handled by the city and province. She says people are being uprooted with little to no options. Just over one week ago, the city cut the electricity to the site while about a dozen people were tenting there.
“The city says it's given people warning to leave but warning to go where?" said the woman. The woman recently left her job as a housing support worker. She asked that we not use her name.
“They’re pushing people into indeterminate spaces and they’re saying just pack up and leave. We don’t know where you’ll go, just go.”
The city says that it has assurance from the province that there are indoor options available for individuals. That includes spaces at the Halifax Forum.
But many, including Dave, do not want to go to a shelter because they say shelters can
be dangerous and they don’t want to give up their privacy.
OTHER ENCAMPMENTS STILL OPEN
There are others sleeping rough. That includes folks at five other less-visible city encampments that remain open. The city doesn’t appear to have a plan to get those people out of the cold.
“Municipal housing and homelessness staff have been focused on providing resources and supports to those sleeping rough in the de-designated locations,” said Jake Fulton, a city spokesperson.
The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia reports that there are 1,164 people actively homeless in the Halifax area. More than 800 of them are considered chronically unhoused.
Jeff Karabanow, a homeless advocate and social work professor at Dalhousie University, says there’s a larger story at play here.
“One is the social safety structures that have been set up aren’t working,” said Karabanow. “There are major, major gaps. One size does not fit all when we talk about intervention around people who are experiencing homelessness.”
The other has to do with public outcry over homeless people reluctant to go to shelters.
“There’s a learning curve that needs to be placed around the fact that intervention works for some, it doesn’t work for all,” said Karabanow. Shelters were never supposed to be a long-term intervention for people, he says. Historically, shelters were designed as a stopgap to get people into some kind of housing quickly. Those options have largely dried up, says the professor.
“There’s such clogging in the systems and the lack of investment in any form of public housing has really shown its mark when it comes to those who are most, most vulnerable.”