Halifax council shut down the new mayor’s motion to scrap the list of nine possible designated encampments, by a narrow vote of 8-7.
Andy Fillmore put forward the idea of de-designating the sites in the first full council meeting, last month.
It was in an effort to make good on his campaign promise to not open any more sites and to phase out the current ones.
However, the move was met with clear opposition, including from Councillor Shawn Cleary, who said the motion is meaningless.
“Whether we approve this or not makes no difference to our staff. Makes no difference to the folks living out in tents. Makes no difference to the province trying to put together winter shelters or tiny homes or pallet shelters or whatever they’re doing. So anyway, it’s a bit of a waste of time for me…so, that’s all I have to say about it.”
Too soon
Councillor Sam Austin backed Cleary’s stance and said taking away the list of sites is premature.
“Having an encampment in your neighborhood is terrible. It sucks. The only people it sucks more for are the people who have to live out there.”
“If you have to live outside, you live in a pretty uncertain sort of reality. ‘Am I going to be hassled to move? Am I going to have to gather up what little I own here and carry it with me?’ The designating of sites provides a certain…fragile though it is…security for folks who have absolutely nothing.”
Austin added that although the city is getting closer to having enough space for everybody, we are not there.
“As long as we have people outside, we should be maintaining a list of locations that we can flexibly respond to…as the need is. Every one of our remaining sites, except for maybe the Barrington Greenway, they’re all still overcrowded. So, why would we be taking sites off the list? We take sites off the list when have successfully addressed the problem.”
Councillors Billy Gillis, Dabid Hendsbee, Becky Kent, Kathryn Morse, Jean St-Amand and Janet Steele also voted against the motion.
Nine possible sites were chosen in the summer, including Point Pleasant Park and The Commons – two very popular tourist attractions – causing quite a bit of backlash.
The rest were:
- Bayers Road Windsor Street Park (Halifax).
- BiHi Park (Halifax).
- Chain Lake Park (Halifax).
- Cogswell Park (Halifax).
- Glebe Street Park (Halifax).
- Geary Street green space (Dartmouth).
- Bissett Road Park (Dartmouth).
Two of them, have already been designated – Cogswell Park and Geary Street.
Provincial initiatives that cater to the unhoused include a recently opened tiny home community in Lower Sackville, and a pallet shelter coming to the corner of Bancroft and Marketplace.
There are more than 1,300 people in HRM on the city’s list that is used for those looking for permanent homes.
