Author’s note: Since this story ran, I’ve received feedback about the accuracy of my reporting. There is a porta potty at the Geary Street site; I’ve been told it was there when I was there a week ago. I did not see it then but I have since found it. Unfortunately as is the way […]
Housing crisis
Posted inNews + Opinion
Police board tries to get ready for next week’s evictions from People’s Park
The Board of Police Commissioners met on Wednesday, July 6, in person at City Hall for the first time in a long time. Commissioner Yemi Akindoju brought muffins for everyone. It was a nice gesture for a meeting dominated by gun violence and a prolonged discussion about what to do about our unhoused neighbours. The […]
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How the city blew its budget for modular housing
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 […]
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City council opens some parks for unhoused Haligonians to sleep in
Halifax city council voted at its Tuesday meeting to allow people without a home to sleep in parks legally. This change was specifically presented to council because changing the bylaw for park use “is the only legislative or administrative option that we have,” said Max Chauvin, parks and recreation special projects manager in his presentation. […]
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NS government announces 22,600 new homes, and 373 of them will be affordable
On Friday, March 25, the Nova Scotia government designated nine new “special planning areas” in HRM. Appearing alongside HRM mayor Mike Savage, provincial housing minister John Lohr said this means development proposals will be fast-tracked and up to 22,600 units of new housing will be built. “As we all know, the housing issue has reached […]
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Pavilion building turning into temporary overnight shelter
On Tuesday, Nova Scotia’s community services department teamed up with the city to make a long-awaited announcement about a emergency overnight shelter. So long-awaited, in fact, that winter is almost over, and unhoused residents will benefit from it for only one month. “The Province will operate a temporary overnight shelter at the Pavilion on the […]
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Police and city staff tear down pantry at People’s Park
Update (March 2): Halifax Regional Police public information officer John McLeod tells The Coast “we made the decision based on the totality of the circumstances and concern for the safety of the public, neighborhood and the residents. Information we received related to the nature of the structure and the potential fire hazard it presented were […]
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What’s the best way to help the houseless—shelter now or housing later?
Friday is a storm day in Halifax. The buses have stopped running. Schools are shuttered. Coffee shops have locked their doors and even Halifax Central Library is closed. In an early morning press release, HRM directs unhoused people to the Hfx Warming Centre. The warming centre’s entrance to it isn’t particularly easy to find. The […]
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Workers say Friendship Centre execs closed shelter because of union drive
Twenty shelter case workers at the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre didn’t know why they were being asked to gather Monday morning at the shelter on North Park Street. “We got an email from one of the big wigs at the Friendship Centre,” says Brent Cosgrove, who has been a case worker since the shelter first […]
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Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre shelter closing amid restructuring
The Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre has long been a place for urban Indigenous people to find resources, community and even housing. But the centre’s shelter at 2029 North Park Street, the former home of the Taoist Tai Chi Society, has only existed since January of this year. There were 25 beds in the beginning, and […]
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Shelter siege protesters going back to court Wednesday
Twenty-four Haligonians are heading back to court for charges stemming from the August 18 shelter siege. That’s when protesters at the old Spring Garden Road library site were arrested after police showed up to pepper spray and disperse the crowd, which had gathered against the eviction of unhoused people living at the site. The charges […]
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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 […]