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 […]
Housing crisis
Posted inNews + Opinion
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 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
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 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
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 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
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 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Shelters threatened by city hall, supported by citizens
Hundreds of people rallied in downtown Halifax on Sunday afternoon in support of several temporary shelters that the city plans to demolish. Halifax Mutual Aid, a local volunteer group, organized the rally at the city’s old central library on Spring Garden Road. That library has been shut down since 2014, and HMA built several of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Pour one out for the Halifax renters left behind
Light a candle for the hundreds of Halifax renters who had to move in the last few years because their rent increased by 10 or 15 or 22 or 33 or 45 percent when it came time for lease renewal. The increase notice, delivered in writing, at least four months before the renewal date, fell […]