Halifax is closing one of its remaining designated homeless tent encampments but some service providers say this will only add to the growing demand for shelter support.
Eviction notices have been handed out to those using the Lower Flinn Park site along Quinpool Road. Residents will have to move out by Dec. 7.
Halifax’s director of housing and homelessness says the municipality is closing the site because there are now more housing options available.
“Designated locations were only ever meant to be a temporary option until there was space for people in shelters, and in housing opportunities, and right now that’s available, so we move forward to close the encampment,” said Max Chauvin.
He adds there are about 24 people camping in Lower Flinn Park — six times more than the municipality originally anticipated for the site.
Last month, a resident at Lower Flinn Park was the victim of a shooting, prompting safety concerns among those who sleep at the site.
“When you got a bunch of people that have potential mental health issues and we’re all out on the streets, winter’s coming, times are getting really tough,” resident Andrew Goodsell remarked last month.
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“I feel like they’re actually putting us in harm’s way, not actually preventing it.”
With this closure, two designated sites remain: Green Road Park in Dartmouth and the Barrington Street green space in downtown Halifax.
The municipality says that as of Oct. 30, there were 59 tents and four trailers in all the remaining designated locations in HRM.
‘Demand is going up’
The designated locations were first established in 2022 in response to a growing number of people who were sleeping rough in the municipality.
Overtime, the municipality says it has been assessing the need for these locations, as more indoor shelter spaces open, and closing them to return them ” to their intended purposes as spaces for everyone.”
The provincial government told Global News this week that it continues to work with service providers to see what’s possible in terms of housing offerings.
“As of late last week, we have 28 shelter beds available in HRM, for example. And we have six units available at Thomas Raddall and Ron Cooper Village, which are two of our shelter village sites for transitional shelter opportunities,” said Jamie Smith, executive director of supportive housing and homelessness with Nova Scotia’s Department of Opportunities and Social Development.
In addition, Smith says the province can increase shelter capacity by 88 beds during extreme weather.
But those who work in the shelters say demand is too high.
Jim Gunn, who is the chair of the board of directors for Beacon House — a non-profit that runs 51 shelter units in Lower Sackville — says workers are constantly turning down shelter requests because they are at capacity.
“I will say that the demand that we see has always been at capacity, so I don’t see that changing.” said Gunn. “If they call us and say, ‘Can we have a bed?’ the only answer is normally, ‘No, we’re full tonight.’”
He adds that so long as affordability challenges persist, so will the need for his organization’s services.
“I will say that our three housing support workers, their demand is going up,” he said.
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