Minister Brendan Maguire is defending the Clayton Park West Pallet shelter village.
Last week, Liberal MLA Rafah DiCostanzo, who represents the area, claimed in a social media post that the project lacked transparency and that the community is concerned about the shelters being close to schools. She also said she didn’t know the project was coming, and that neither did two city councillors for the area.
She reiterated those questions during the legislature’s question period on Tuesday.
Maguire said both the Canada Games Centre and the BMO Soccer Centre were consulted, and the city councillors would have known about this from the beginning.
“They would have voted on it and would have been part of the process,” Maguire said.
He adds that the municipality has the “ultimate authority” on where these sites go.
But he said the government understands why some in the community would be worried about having a shelter village in their community.
“I understand the fear. This is not an encampment. This is a place where people are set up for success,” he said.
He said these Pallet shelters are homes, and they have an incredible success rate.
The government has set up several transitional housing sites to help people move from homelessness to having a home or apartment.
The Pallet shelters in Sackville offer 51 beds and are run by the Beacon House Shelter, with some initial opposition from people in the area.
Two other Pallet locations recently opened, one in Kentville, with 20 units, and one on Atlantic Street in Dartmouth, with 41 shelters.
DiCostanzo also asked what wraparound services the shelters would have and who the community could contact if there were any issues.
Maguire said the service provider would answer concerns from the community on this.
The department previously told our newsroom that the province will release more information about the shelter once they work through some issues with the service provider.
Once the department finalizes that information, Maguire said they would provide it to DiCostanzo.
“But the truth is, Madame Speaker, these are people that need a little bit of help,” he said.
