Crisis shelters in Halifax 'will be removed' says municipality
A volunteer group that built so-called "crisis shelters" in Halifax to help those in the city who are homeless is upset the municipality plans to take them down.
Halifax Mutual Aid built 13 of the small wooden framed structures throughout the city earlier this year. There are several in front of Halifax's old library on Spring Garden Road, and others scattered on both sides of the bridges.
The group says all of them are now fully occupied and says there are also 21 people on its waiting list.
"It was really important to us that people had somewhere safe with a roof over their head with a lock on their door," says group spokesperson Campbell McClintock.
When the first ones were erected in January, the city said Halifax Mutual Aid didn't have permission to build them on municipal land.
But at the time, it also said occupants would not be evicted unless they had somewhere else to go.
Now, McClintock says the city has been informing occupants they will soon be provided another place to stay.
"And what the city is offering is a hotel room for no longer than two weeks," says McClintock, "maybe longer, although there's no guarantee it will be longer."
"And there's no promise," he adds, "of housing after the hotel room."
McClintock believes once the crisis shelters are all empty, the city will take them down. He says city officials have never directly communicated with the group about the municipality's plans.
In an email statement provided late Wednesday to CTV News in lieu of a requested interview, the municipality confirmed McClintock's suspicions.
"These shelters cannot remain on-site indefinitely and will be removed" writes city public affairs advisor Maggie-Jane Spray. "A deadline has not yet been finalized."
"Placing anything in a park for the purpose of temporary or permanent accommodation is not permitted under By-Law P-600."
The city says staff have been working with the province and Street Outreach Navigators to find adequate housing for the people living in the temporary shelters.
According to the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia, the city has not made measurable progress on homelessness, with about 400 people in the city still without homes. Half of those people have been homeless for six months or longer.
The association's executive director describes the current situation as "treading water" – in which the number of people who are homeless hasn't changed dramatically one way or the other.
Jim Graham says if the city is planning to move the occupants of the temporary shelters, it needs a long-term solution.
"It's easy to say let's, it's better in a hotel, it's safer, it's warmer," says Graham, "but if you think about how you exit that strategy, it's hard."
Graham says shelters are full, there's a lack of affordable housing, and recent Rapid Housing building projects have barely broken ground, if at all.
McClintock says many occupants using the shelters feel more at home there than they would in other accommodations, such as shelters.
"They're the best possible solution for a number of people who are going to be sleeping in tents or bank lobbies," he says.
Halifax Mutual Aid intends to hold a COVID safe rally at 2 p.m. Sunday at the old Halifax Memorial Library to highlight its concerns.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
7 surveillance videos linked to extortions of South Asian home builders in Edmonton released
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by U.S. to hit Russian-held areas, officials say
Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.