WATCH ABOVE: A Halifax man has reached his limit with Metro Regional Housing and is taking the fight to the street. Global’s David Squires reports.
HALIFAX – Single father George Fagan says he has reached his limit with Metro Regional Housing and in a last ditch effort to find a new home he and his four-year-old daughter, Lennita, has taken to the streets of Halifax to panhandle.
“This is my breaking point. I can’t believe it,” said Fagan.
Fagan and his daughter currently live in Ahern Manor on Gottingen Street. He calls the public housing arrangement a “nightmare.” He says there is constant drug activity and infestations of cockroaches and mice. Last week, he had to throw out his bed because it was covered in rodent droppings and urine.
His daughter also found and picked up a used syringe in the shared laundry room.
“I’m asking for a donation to help me provide a proper two bedroom unit for me and my child because I’m a single father,” he said.
Fagan has filed police reports, made formal complaints to Metro Regional Housing and even presented a doctor’s note to the housing authority advising that it’s best for Lennita to have new living arrangements. He says he cannot afford to move on his welfare income and has to depend on housing but the response from housing has been excuses and delays.
He is now asking the public for help, documenting his story on a single sign and taking that sign to the streets to ask for money.
Fagan told Global News he was advised by Child Protective Services not to take his daughter panhandling but he says it’s the only option he has.
“I was informed it was bad to bring my child out, but I’m protecting my child, not abusing my child like the system has. I’m doing this for all the right reasons not the wrong,” said Fagan.
George Fagan says he will be taking to the streets of Halifax with his daughter every week, until he can collect enough money for a new home or until Metro Regional Housing provides one.
A spokesperson for Metro Regional Housing declined to comment to Global News on Fagan’s specific case due to its privacy policy.
However, it did issue the following statement: “People deserve to feel safe in their homes. This is very important to us. Like any landlord, we struggle with a variety of social issues – especially in our larger buildings, including Ahern Manor. We know that there is still more that we need to do. In cases where tenants come to us asking for transfers and we can’t move them into another unit quickly, we explore rent supplements. We’ll do whatever we can to give people options.
“A Metro Housing Spokesperson continued to say that clients who are eligible for ESIA benefits and are moving for health and safety reasons could be eligible for assistance with moving costs.”
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