Halifax Regional Council met today, August 31, for the first time since the shelter siege on August 18, when 24 people were arrested while trying to protect their neighbours living on the old library grounds from violent eviction by police and city staff. One of the first topics of discussion on today’s meeting agenda was […]
Affordable housing
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Halifax police chief Kinsella defends use of force at the Memorial Library shelter protest
Halifax Regional Police chief Dan Kinsella, who was not present at yesterday’s chaotic arrests and protest, says officers “responded appropriately” when using pepper spray which hurt at least one child. In a media availability Thursday afternoon, following 24 arrests made August 18 as police forcibly removed shelters and tents inhabited by unhoused Haligonians, the police […]
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How the city created a crisis Wednesday with a shelter siege
In mid-July, when eviction notices were posted on several Halifax Mutual Aid-built shelters across Halifax, HRM councillor Shawn Cleary assured Haligonians that the removal of unhoused residents’ tents, wooden shelters and belongings would happen without violence. “If someone is dragged out of one of these shelters by a police officer I’ll be down there with […]
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Updated: How to help Halifax’s housing insecure after the shelter siege
It went quiet, just for a split second, outside the old Spring Garden Road Memorial Library site today. It felt like a collective inhale, a pause in the din of protestors, police, city employees and bystanders. As a city worker lifted a chainsaw to one of the temporary shelters on site, chewing it up with […]
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Halifax decides time’s up for crisis shelter residents
Early Tuesday morning, several shelter residents in downtown Halifax awoke to learn that this provincial election day may also double as their eviction date. Thirty-four days after the city’s original July 13 deadline for shelter removal, police and bylaw officers have begun to serve eviction notices to several people living in crisis shelters and tents […]
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New mapping effort pinpoints housing opportunities
The next time you’re wandering Halifax and come across an abandoned building or empty piece of land, put a pin in that thought: With your help that property could become an affordable place for people to live. This should be housing is a brand-new collaborative mapping project that invites residents of the HRM to create […]
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43 new affordable homes for Halifax from federal cash
One day after Halifax Regional Municipality’s deadline for the removal of crisis shelters from parks, mayor Mike Savage announced a plan to add at least 43 new affordable homes to the city in the next year—thanks to $13 million from a federal program. He used Wednesday’s affordable housing event to address the shelter situation, too. […]
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Crisis shelters safe as removal deadline passes
Halifax’s crisis shelters have survived to see another day, but the length and security of that stay is still anyone’s game. “We’re not going to move in and force people out,” said mayor Mike Savage Tuesday, the day of the city’s deadline for the shelters to be removed. “Our goal is to treat people like […]
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‘We don’t want another Trinity Bellwoods’ for Halifax shelters
Embed from Getty Images Slideshow of scenes from Trinity Bellwoods Park. Halifax’s housing crisis—and official discomfort over the visible homeless population—is not unique. In Toronto, at Trinity Bellwoods Park, a police and bylaw officer presence on June 22 forced nearly 25 people to leave their temporary homes and shelters in the park. The eviction included […]
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Three crisis shelters taken down four days early by city
Earlier this week, Halifax gave itself a deadline of July 13 to remove all the temporary crisis shelters it knows about on municipal property. And while Tuesday is still four days away, today—Friday—three of these shelters were carted away by city staff. “Now that the city has gone back on its word, we can’t trust […]
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Crisis shelter fire creates a liability issue for HRM
As the debate around temporary crisis shelters in Halifax continues, many councillors and members of the public alike have forgotten that real people live in these tiny “sheds” situated in public parks. “These shelters and tents are not safe or appropriate housing,” said one councillor in a letter to the province on Wednesday. “They have […]
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HRM vows to remove temporary shelters without warning after July 13
On Tuesday, Halifax Regional Municipality released a statement that confirmed it will do what it’s been threatening for weeks—remove temporary shelters located on municipal property. “A deadline date of July 13, 2021 has been given to remove the shelters–failing which, the shelters, and any personal items contained within the shelters, will be removed by the […]