August 18, 2021, was a defining moment for Halifax. That was the day city hall decided to evict houseless people from public lands, sending municipal workers and police out at dawn to tear down shelters and tents. And it was that Wednesday afternoon hundreds of citizens amassed at the former Halifax Memorial Library, hoping to […]
Halifax Mutual Aid
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Catholic archdiocese building up to 20 tiny shelters on church land this winter
Last fall, when Roman Catholic archbishop Brian Dunn moved into his position, replacing longtime archbishop Anthony Mancini, he wrote a pastoral letter outlining four priorities for his sphere of influence, the Halifax-Yarmouth archdiocese. Three of those are very specific to church affairs, including the religious teaching called catechesis. The other priority is homelessness. “It was […]
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Weighing the costs of HRM’s crisis housing options
Late in September, Halifax announced a plausible, partial alternative to the unhoused population living outdoors this winter—a set of 73 modular housing units that cost $240,000 total and would be ready for habitation “before the snow flies.” Then came weeks of silence on the subject, followed by the admission at last Tuesday’s meeting of Halifax […]
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Activists build a crisis shelter as Halifax stays silent about modular housing plans
Tuesday at its regular biweekly meeting, Halifax Regional Council is supposed to receive a long-awaited update on the city’s plan to deploy modular housing units, which were announced in late September as a way to create shelter for dozens of unhoused Haligonians. The update could be related to council agenda item 15.1.7, Options for Increased […]
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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 […]
