The Halifax Regional Municipality announced Wednesday that it will be closing and de-designating the encampment site at Cogswell Park effective immediately.
However, people sheltering at the site will have until Sept. 21 to either “relocate to an indoor option or, if necessary, to another of the municipality’s designated locations as a short-term solution,” the city said in a release.
The de-designation is because a new adult care facility has opened less than 50 metres from the park, at the corner of Robie Street and Quinpool Road, so the site no longer complies with HRM’s encampment policies.
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From now until Sept. 21, HRM says those sleeping rough at Cogswell Park will be “offered resources and supports, including transportation of people and their belongings to provincially-funded indoor shelter and housing options, or to other municipal designated locations.” The municipality will also offer “temporary storage of belongings.”
Outside of Cogswell Park, there were 75 tents and four trailers in the remaining designated locations as of Aug. 15, according to municipal housing and homelessness staff.
“From the outset, the municipality has been clear that the creation of designated locations would be temporary. They were established in July 2022 to address an immediate need to ensure people had a location to go to if they had no other option but to sleep rough,” the city said in a release.
“The municipality is constantly assessing the need for designated locations. As more indoor shelter spaces and supportive housing options become available, more municipal designated locations will be closed, de-designated and returned to their intended purposes as spaces for everyone.”
Cogswell Park was first designated an encampment site in July 2024.
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