Mayoral candidate says Halifax attracts unhoused people; advocates say that's untrue

Former Liberal MP Andy Fillmore rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, April 21, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

HALIFAX -

A candidate for Halifax mayor says the municipality's approach to homeless encampments has encouraged unhoused people from across the country to move to the city to live in tents -- a claim housing advocates and city councillors say is untrue.

Andy Fillmore, who was a Liberal member of Parliament for Halifax for nine years, said police have told him the city is attracting homeless people from outside the province -- a fact he attributes to the municipality providing support like outhouses and water at city-designated encampment sites.

In an interview, the mayoral candidate said that after an August 2021 protest over encampment evictions turned violent, Halifax council "stopped enforcing rules about removing tents from undesignated sites, they increased the support."

"Those are signals that were broadcast to other jurisdictions and have the effect of bringing people to Halifax," Fillmore said.

The former MP says that Halifax police, volunteers helping at local encampments, and housing advocates from other provinces have told him "a great many of the folks out of the 1,200 living in tents are neither Haligonians nor Nova Scotians."

Halifax Regional Police Const. Martin Cromwell said that information did not come from the police chief's office, "nor do we have data at (the city) to support it."

Housing advocates Nikki Greer and Steve Wilsack, both of whom have worked with people living in Halifax encampments for months, say the vast majority of homeless residents they work with are local.

"There are more resources in other provinces, with better mental health support. I can't fathom why someone would think Halifax would be appealing," Greer said Tuesday. She added that there are, however, homeless Nova Scotians living rurally that may move to the city, where there are more resources compared to the areas they're from.

Wilsack echoed similar sentiments. "It doesn't even seem logical for someone who's homeless to spend money on travel just to get over here because we have outhouses and water dropped off. That's not enough incentive," he said in an interview Tuesday. "So based on my perspective, that isn't the case."

Waye Mason, a Halifax councillor who is also running for mayor, says Fillmore's claim is baseless and that data collected by the city show that 61 per cent of homeless people in the area have lived in Halifax for more than 10 years.

The majority of the remaining 39 per cent have been in the city between eight and five years, Mason said, making Fillmore's claim "provably untrue."

Pam Lovelace, another Halifax councillor running for mayor, said she's not aware of unhoused people flocking to the city because of the presence of designated encampments. However, she said she's aware of situations in which people from outside the province have come to Halifax for a number of reasons and end up without a home.

"We do not have a closed border, and this autocratic approach of Mr. Fillmore is quite dangerous," she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2024.

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