Halifax staff drafts tent encampments report for council

The Halifax Regional Municipality staff has drafted a report for council addressing homelessness and the tent encampments around the city.

City staff are urging for immediate action, which will require funding support from the province.

The 59-page report outlines the need for new sheltering and housing resources to meet the needs of the community living at encampments, including spaces where people can bring their partners and pets, accelerating the purchase and installation of pallet shelters, and an individualized case management plan outlining a housing strategy.

The report also highlights the need for a winter sheltering RV-program, which would allow people to live at a campsite for a low cost.

During the winter months, the city introduced a pilot project allowing people to live in RVs at Shubie Park, but it came to an end once the camping season started. The city would need $180,000 to continue the program.

The city staff report emphasizes providing increased mental health care and additional services to the homeless population and underscores the need to approve an unbudgeted reserve withdrawal of up to $4 million to create a rapid response.

Jeff Karabanow, social work professor at Dalhousie University, said the report is very comprehensive and can bring changes to the issue.

“There’s a lot of data there, it’s trauma-informed, it’s compassionate, and it sees all the multiple perspectives in dealing with all levels of this housing crisis,” said Karabanow.

A tent in Halifax is pictured. (Hafsa Arif/CTV Atlantic)

Karabanow hopes some of the funds go towards resources that already exist.

“We do have services that popped up in the last year in response to the encampment that I wonder if some of that funding can go to them to design, [and] restructure their operations to continue helping the people living at these encampments,” he said.

He said the report is timely, especially as the weather warms up and people leave indoor shelters.

“Our homeless population has increased but it hasn’t gotten to the level that Montreal or Toronto, so we can still address this before it becomes even more difficult to control,” he said.

With more tents popping up around the city, street navigators are struggling to keep up.

“For one individual to have to run to serve 40-50 people or more clients a day, it’s physically impossible. So people are slipping through the cracks,” said Sue Uteck, executive director of Spring Garden Area Business Association. “You’re dealing with a lot of people with acuity needs, severe mental health here in the Spring Garden-area. This is something both my colleagues from other business improvement districts have been asking for over a year.”

City staff will present the report at the council meeting on Tuesday.

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