'They live in panic': Halifax serves eviction notices to residents at University Avenue encampment

As temperatures cool down, the Halifax Regional Municipality is serving eviction notices to residents at one of the city’s larger tent encampments.

HRM says it’s de-designating the space, which is currently home to 26 tents, on University Avenue due to snow-clearing safety concerns.

The municipality says the equipment used for snow removal in the winter works close to the University Avenue green space, making it unsafe for people sheltering in the area.

“In advance of the winter weather, municipal staff are providing people sleeping rough with notices to leave the University Avenue green space,” said HRM in a news release Tuesday.

HRM says people who are staying at the site must gather all their belongings, including tents, and leave the area by 5 p.m. on Nov. 1.

City staff delivered eviction notices to residents Tuesday morning.

William MacQueen will have to find another place to go after HRM served eviction notices to residents at a tent encampment on University Avenue on Sept. 24, 2024. (Jonathan MacInnis/CTV Atlantic)

William MacQueen says he isn’t sure what the future holds for him now.

“I’d like to stay in Halifax,” says MacQueen, who is originally from Whitney Pier, N.S. “I’ve got to wait for my compensation.”

The green space between Robie and South Park streets on University Avenue was originally designed to allow for six tents. However, the tent count reached almost 40 earlier this summer.

Tamara Stein, a volunteer street navigator, is worried about residents who will have to pack up and move.

“They’re always in a state of panic,” says Stein. “They live in panic, so anybody with PTSD, severe anxiety, today they are through the roof.”

The Halifax Regional Municipality served eviction notices to residents of a tent encampment on University Avenue on Sept. 24, 2024. (Jon MacInnis/CTV Atlantic)

In the next five weeks, people sleeping rough on University Avenue will be offered transportation to indoor shelter or housing options, or other designated encampment locations. The municipality will also offer temporary storage of belongings.

Halifax’s director of housing and homelessness is confident all 150 people sleeping outside around the city will have a place to go this winter.

“There’s a variety of potential sheltering and housing options online from the province,” says Max Chauvin.

“I think there’s been a discussion about pallet shelters, for example. There’s also movement in all of the different sheltering and housing options that are out there.”

However, Stein isn’t so sure.

“Not everybody fits the acuity. It’s the acuity level that gets people into pallet shelters, tiny homes, shelters,” she says. “Some of these people do not fit that requirement and I don’t know where they’re going to go.”

Once the University Avenue site is closed, Halifax will have five designated encampment sites designed to accommodate 40 people, though some are already above capacity.

The remaining designated encampment sites are:

• the Barrington Street green space
• Green Road Park
• Lower Flinn Park
• Cogswell Park
• the Geary Street green space

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.