Outreach workers rush to get homeless people off the streets as polar vortex approaches
With the first significant cold snap of the winter upon us, getting people into a shelter and off the streets can be the difference between life and death.
“The biggest difference is just that danger element of the cold you know. It’s never fun being homeless, it’s not fun being outside when it’s zero degrees but when it’s minus 15, minus 20, it becomes dangerous,” says the coordinator of the Navigator Street Outreach Program, Eric Jonsson.
Michael Kabalen is the executive director of the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia. He says based on their data, there are 799 people experiencing chronic homelessness in Halifax.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean all 799 people are in need of emergency shelter either. People could be couch surfing, they could be living in their cars, they could be living in inadequate housing, so those folks typically have, in this type of weather, a place to go,” Kabalen says.
It’s difficult to put an exact number on how many people are living rough outside. However, as frigid temperatures move in, finding a place out of the cold is difficult.
“We do know all the shelters are effectively full as of last night. There’s a couple of beds here and there but for the most part, the shelters are running full,” says Kabalen.
For the first time this winter, ice is forming in Charlottetown Harbour, an indication of how cold it is. Prince Edward Island’s department of Social Development and Housing is opening shelters and has secured additional beds if shelters reach capacity.
Back in Nova Scotia, Jonsson says there is something people can do to help.
“Checking on people. I think a lot of people in the general public know homeless people in their neighbourhood and they don’t want to bother them or anything like that. But check in on the folks they know who are outside and see if they need anything.
Jonsson says donations of warm clothes, sleeping bags, hats and gloves can be taken to any outreach program in the area.
There is some help coming, although it is down the road. One-hundred-and-two shelter rooms and 60 affordable units will be completed by the end of the year.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
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.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
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.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
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.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.