‘We need help’
Halifax street navigator struggling with eviction deadline
Struggling with the Feb. 26 eviction deadline, a Halifax street navigator recently posted on X: “We need help.”
Lucas Goltz, program coordinator with Downtown Halifax's Navigator Outreach Program, said he’s made some progress helping people move out of encampments (primarily Grand Parade and Victoria Park) but “it would take a miracle” for everyone to be out by Feb. 26.
“It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. All of my clients were taken by surprise by this,” he said.
On Feb. 7, the HRM posted notices on tents on five designated encampments in HRM that they would be closing as of Feb. 26 (Grand Parade, Victoria Park, Geary Street in Dartmouth, Saunders Park in west-end Halifax, Lower Sackville ballfield).
When the notices were issued, Mayor Mike Savage said HRM is acting because there are enough shelter options for people living rough. Besides the shelter recently set up at the Forum, officials said there would be additional places for people to go, including the former DoubleTree hotel in Dartmouth that’s been converted to a shelter, as well as modular housing set up in Halifax and Dartmouth.
But the issue is complicated, and many people won’t go into a shelter for many reasons, including that it feels like a jail.
People who are new to living rough are often targets for theft and bullying at shelters and are more vulnerable, Goltz said. He said there are myths to dispel that homeless people are just saying, “no, that’s not what I want” when given a shelter option.
“If we had shelters that were being run well, that were safe, that did not just have incarceration culture embedded in them — and that’s not a knock on all of our service providers. It’s tough to run a shelter, I’ve run shelters before, and it’s very difficult,” he said.
“It’s just a reality that they are difficult places to live. They can be a Band-Aid solution for some people, but particularly for my clients who are newer to the streets … they’re not used to any of this.”
RATCHETING UP FEAR, ANXIETY, DESPAIR
People living rough usually try to roll with the punches, but this has increased their anxiety, fear and feelings of despair, he said.
“They don’t really have their government behind them, so to speak, and it feels like they’re just being pushed along to the next place and there is no next place for them right now.”
A few people have been able to get into housing since Feb. 7, Goltz said, as some of them have returned home, out of province, to live with family.
But there are still about 30 people left in Grand Parade and Victoria Park.
“We still have quite a few people we need to find a space for because there isn’t enough space right now.”
The biggest obstacle is, of course, housing, he said, followed closely by the deprivation of mental health supports.
“We don’t have near enough supports in place to support the people who are outside who need to come inside,” he said. “It’s one thing to put someone in a onebedroom unit or a bachelor pad, but many people need some mental health supports, especially if they’ve been on the streets now through the winter.”
People sleeping rough need to get up throughout the night to stay warm or find somewhere warm to go for a few hours. And that means sleep deprivation is piling onto mental health issues.
Some of his clients with “debilitating depression to the point where they have suicidal ideations” are being turned away from Abby Lane hospital.
“Even when they report they’re feeling their lowest and they want to end their lives, they’re being told it’s just because they don’t have capacity.”
And for the minority of his clients who have addictions, they are having trouble getting support.
“Some of them throw their hands up in the air and say, ‘I tried.’”
DOWN ON GEARY STREET
It’s good that it’s winter.
Shawn Parker, street navigator and outreach support worker for north-end Halifax and downtown Dartmouth, said if it were summer, there would be a lot more people who would be living at the Geary Street encampment in Dartmouth.
As it is, there were only two residents there as of Feb. 7. Parker said one man is in a hotel now and the other is going to stay at the modulars in Halifax behind the Centennial Pool.
“I’m hoping, cross your fingers, that it’s going to be an easy transition.”
One of the men had been living there in a shed for the past three years.
“That’s kind of what he considered his home.”
But it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months, if people will slowly move back into the park.
“It’s kind of a hidden area in the summertime because once the leaves get on the trees you really can’t see deep in there,” Parker said, adding that even if HRM fenced it off, people would find ways to get in.
The street navigator who covers the designated encampment in Lower Sackville works directly for HRM and was not available for an interview. In a statement, an HRM spokesperson said as of Feb. 20, there are about 12 people sleeping rough there.
When asked what help he’s looking for, Goltz said they need landlords who are willing to step up and push back against misconceptions that all homeless people have addictions or are extremely mentally ill.
“That’s not the case. There are several elderly people who are living outside who lost their housing somehow and they would be very good tenants for someone,” Goltz said.
“I feel like some of those myths that are out there really keep landlords from doing so because I understand it is a risk for them. We really need people to take that risk.”
DEADLINE
Goltz said he feels optimistic about the Feb. 26 deadline.
“I do believe the city is trying to get people into appropriate housing and I think on the 26th, I’m really hoping for as little confrontation as possible,” Goltz said.
“I’ve been prepping my clients because there is a concern that what happened in 2021 will be a repeat and I don’t think anyone wants that.
“I believe that cooler heads will prevail on the 26th.”
But is there any chance everyone will be moved out by the deadline?
“We’re probably going to need a miracle to make that happen.”