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 […]
Shelter siege
Posted inNews + Opinion
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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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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Housing advocates hosting a rally outside Province House on Sunday
People are invited and encouraged to gather outside the Nova Scotia legislature building on Sunday, November 28 to rally in support of housing for all. The event at Province House, titled “call back the house until we all have one,” will take place from 1-2pm and is being organized by members of P.A.D.S. (Permanent, Accessible, […]
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Modular units, where art thou?
Way back on August 31, Halifax Regional Council held a special meeting to discuss the housing crisis. It was only a few weeks after the violent police action on August 18, and the disturbing images from that day were still at the forefront of the city’s collective consciousness. The meeting was mainly councillors feeling remorseful, […]
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Police board seeks independent advice on independent review of shelter siege
Exactly two months after the shelter siege of August 18, Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners met to discuss the possibility of an independent review of police actions that day. A petition calling for such a review was started by the East Coast Prison Justice Society and signed by nearly 5,000 people over the past eight […]
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HRM says modular housing units will be here “before the snow flies”
For several months, unhoused people in HRM have been struggling to find a safe place to sleep. Residents “sleeping rough,” as the city has dubbed it, have had municipal workers threaten eviction, seen promises of shelter announced and then revoked and been the focal point of violent police action. Many houseless citizens eventually settled at […]
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24 protesters arrested at the shelter siege have their first day in court
“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 […]
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City responds to housing crisis with modular units and staffer used to emergencies
The assistant chief of emergency management for HRM usually deals with the fallout from hurricanes, power outages and nor’easters. Erica Fleck has been in that position since 2017, but the duties of the job largely changed earlier this month when Fleck was assigned to what the city calls “a three-month role leading the emergency response […]
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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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Tim Houston (again) rejects rent control
Premier-designate Tim Houston agrees the lack of housing in Nova Scotia is a “crisis.” But in his first appearance with chief medical officer of health Robert Strang, the Progressive Conservative leader repeated his campaign message that rent control is not the fix. “I don’t believe that rent control is a solution to the housing crisis, […]