Owen Harris and his bandmates knew they wanted to do something when they saw the HRM had cleared out and fenced off the Grand Parade tent encampment. Raised in Halifax, the Customer Service drummer had watched the city’s housing crisis turn “very severe” in recent years as the province grew and struggled to keep pace with living costs. And as the city prepared to welcome the country’s biggest music stars for the JUNO Awards, it felt to Harris like Halifax’s most marginalized residents were getting pushed out of the frame—either evicted from the “de-designated” Grand Parade square or Victoria Park and hurried into indoor shelter spaces that, while perhaps warm, weren’t always particularly hospitable.
“You know, the issues with homelessness in Halifax has been … ongoing for what feels like a really long time,” Harris says, speaking by phone with The Coast, “but I think a lot of that [tension] has come to the forefront with the JUNOs, and the city trying to ‘clean up’ for the [awards].”
It’s a commonly-held feeling, even if councillor Pam Lovelace has dismissed claims of the HRM clearing unhoused residents for the JUNOs as “ridiculous,” adding the evictions would’ve happened regardless of the music awards.
“It is not a safe or dignified form of housing to live outside,” she told the Signal earlier this month.
True or not, the evictions—which some onlookers claim happened while residents were away—didn’t sit right with Harris.
His band, Customer Service, is organizing a benefit concert for Mobile Outreach Street Health (MOSH), which offers health-care services for unhoused and insecurely-housed Haligonians. The concert will take over the Seahorse Tavern this Thursday, Mar. 21. All ticket proceeds will support the local non-profit.
“We were kind of like, what’s something we can do to show our support for our neighbours?” Harris says. “For us, we figured we could hold a show and hopefully raise a good amount of money.”
It’s been a momentous year for Customer Service: The Halifax band (which, along with Harris, includes Matt Cheverie, Max Hayden and Nick Adams) was recently named one of “8 emerging Canadian artists you need to hear” by Exclaim!, and their debut EP, Live Forever More, has already won the band more than 10,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. (The Coast hailed their debut single as a “punk rock triumph.”)
“It’s been a dream,” Harris tells The Coast. “Especially holding your physical music in your hands is so surreal.” (The band pressed up their debut record on 10-inch vinyl.)
Joining Customer Service for Thursday’s benefit concert are local bands Pavel Stroke, Postfun and Bill Ricky.
Doors open at 8pm. Tickets are $8 in advance and $12 at the door.
