HRM pulls plug at City Hall encampment
A donated generator was supplying power to tents before it was removed
HALIFAX – There’s a green dumpster in the middle of Grand Parade.
It showed up the morning of March 1 as people still tenting in front of City Hall had their power cut off.
On one of the coldest days of the year, a 55-year-old man sat alone in his tent. Dave, who asked that we not use his last name, said he’s waiting to have a knee and hip replaced. He’s trying to live on $380 a month he gets in welfare.
The city made good on its promise to cut off electricity to the tent site early March 1. It had been a few weeks coming. Eviction notices were pinned to tents Feb. 7. The notices gave people living there until Monday, Feb. 26, to leave. About a dozen people were still there March 1.
Dave won’t freeze. He uses a propane heater to stay warm. But the move by the city means he won’t have light in his tent tonight.
“Now I’m in the dark, as usual.”
Dave said he’d leave the encampment if he was offered a room somewhere, rather than a cot on a floor. Until that happens, he doesn’t plan to leave.
“They’ll have to arrest me, because I’m not budging.”
The electricity was coming from a donated generator that the city ordered removed. It allowed those without propane to heat their tents. One of them is a pregnant woman. Saltwire tried to speak with the woman and her partner, but they wouldn’t leave their tent. They did say there was nowhere for them to go where they could stay together.
Steve Wilsack, who has been supervising the site for more than 100 days, said he was shocked that the city cut off power on such a cold day.
Wilsack and a few volunteers had set up the generator. Volunteers removed it.
“It’s been a lifeline for the residents here,” he said. “It had been used for electric heaters, lights, to charge the phones.”
Wilsack said he contacted Mayor Mike Savage’s office and provincial government earlier this week with a simple solution — delay the power cut and put people in hotel rooms. The Doubletree in Dartmouth has already taken some.
He spoke with Community Servics Minister Brendan Maguire directly about putting people up in hotel rooms. Maguire, he said, promised to get back to him, but didn’t.
Wilsack said those left in the encampment don’t want to go to a shelter because they’re not safe and there’s no privacy.
“Here, people feel more secure with people they know (who) look out for each other.”
On March 1, Maguire said there are several shelter options for people at the encampment but couldn’t name them.
“We want to get people into a warm environment with an individualized human approach to these things,” he said.
The minister wouldn’t comment on the city cutting off power at the encampment.
“The city’s going to do what the city’s going to do.”
Saltwire reached out to Savage's office March 1 but a spokesperson said the mayor wouldn't comment.
In October, the province announced it would spend $7.5 million to buy 200 shelters built by American manufacturer Pallet, with 100 to be placed in Halifax. So far only 19 have arrived and Community Services will not say how many are occupied.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender says that Maguire and the province need to find appropriate accommodations for those in encampments now. “The entire situation is tragic,” said Chender. “At the end of the day, it’s the responsibility of the province to ensure that people are safely housed.”