Halifax business owners encourage city to enforce eviction deadline for encampments

While the city of Halifax has handed out eviction notices, residents of some of the tent encampments have indicated they’re not leaving unless there’s a suitable place to go.

“The majority of people, at least in this encampment, are in a position where they want to leave and they want to find proper housing. As we stated several times, the shelter is not proper housing,” says homelessness advocate Stephen Wilsack.

Patience, however, is running thin for some downtown business owners.

“It’s an ongoing issue as of this winter. It’s something we haven’t experienced before,” says Issmat Al-Akhali, who runs two businesses.

Lately he says it has been difficult because of an increase in crime.

“I personally have experienced multiple incidents of vandalism and thefts from both of my businesses, which were not there for the seven years that I have been operating in this area,” he says says.

Al-Akhali says the crime increase has coincided with the establishment of tent encampments in the city's core.

Tents are pictured at Victoria Park in Halifax on Feb. 9, 2024.

He has started a group call the Friends of Downtown Halifax. They're circulating a petition to encourage the city to enforce the Feb. 26 deadline for evictions of some of the encampments.

“The area has certainly deteriorated significantly,” says Al-Akhali. “We are human and we understand this is a complex issue, we understand that encampment residence may have nowhere else to go.”

The group has received the support of the Spring Garden Road Business Association.

An eviction notice on top of a tent is pictured here on Feb. 9, 2024.

“Crime has spiked in the area, the amount of panhandling. But most importantly, the lack of resources for the mental health issues that we see day in and day out here on Spring Garden Road,” says the Association’s executive director Sue Uteck. “As a business association, we are happy that a deadline has been given.”

Wilsack hopes that deadline has some flexibility.

“Whether it’s an extra week, two weeks to ensure the proper well-being of individuals, it’s not a lot,” he says.

As Halifax continues to try to get people out of tents and into warm places to stay, the town of Truro announced a new overnight shelter will be open Monday to Saturday at Connection Church until April 30. 

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