“I’m not a hero,” says Kate MacDonald into a microphone, standing at the centre of a group gathered this morning outside the courthouse on Spring Garden Road. “Nobody here is.” But the crowd of about 50 may disagree. MacDonald and 23 others were arrested by Halifax Regional Police on August 18 for defending their unhoused […]
Emergency Shelters
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Housing rally happening at City Hall on Saturday morning
There’s a rally in support of unhoused Haligonians this Saturday, September 18 at 11am. It’s taking place outside Halifax City Hall in Grand Parade (1841 Argyle Street). Organized by the P.A.D.S. Community Network, supporters are being asked to show up to ask the government for a freeze on evictions due to the ongoing housing crisis. […]
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Surprise second eviction looming for some crisis shelter residents who took city help
Tuesday morning, a group of houseless people who had been evicted from public parks and put up by the city at the Comfort Hotel in Dartmouth got some disturbing news: once again, they are being evicted. “We are a bit frantic this morning and quite upset,” says Rachelle Sauvé, site coordinator for P.A.D.S. Community Network, […]
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Housing and remorse dominate council’s first meeting since the shelter siege
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 […]
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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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Emergency shelter politics
One size doesn’t fit all. They tried to tell us so. After their warnings fell on deaf ears, this coalition of do-gooders now known as the Out of the Cold shelter organizing committee switched tactics. They combined their considerable resources and contacts and started working to create a new homeless shelter—-one that would fit the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Out in the cold
A deal between the provincial government and an organization that runs some of Halifax’s homeless shelters could end up endangering the lives of homeless people this winter, front-line workers say. In October, minister of community services Judy Streatch announced that Pendleton Place would not re-open this winter due to an agreement her department made with […]
