A national conference to end homelessness is coming to Halifax this week, but some Haligonians are skeptical as to whether the talks will spark real change.
The event will run Wednesday through Friday and is being hosted by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, a national movement of organizations working to end homelessness across the country.
According to the alliance’s director of communications, Andrew Burns, this conference has seen the largest interest yet.
Burns says the conference will also include the voices of 140 people who have lived experience being unhoused.
This gathering will be coming a week after the city confirmed that the Shubie Campground in Dartmouth will be open through the winter for people to live out of their trailers.
One Shubie campground resident, Carrie Steeves, is hoping for positive change when it comes to solving the housing crisis in Nova Scotia, but says she’s skeptical about how the conference will lead to action.
“If seeing a baseball field of tents isn’t changing anything, then how is that going to change anything?” Steeves says.
Steeves has been living in her trailer with her cat, Ben, for six months, ever since rental prices went up and she was unable to afford an apartment on her single income.
Before Shubie, Steeves says she was living and working at Renfrew Campground in Nine Mile River.
“I’ll tell you, most of the people here are single people, they’re single people that live on their own, they’re not married, they’re by themselves,” Steeves says. “And there’s a reason why, because it is impossible to survive on a single income.”
Although Steeves lives out of her trailer, she’s not considered low income, meaning she doesn’t qualify for assistance.
“You don’t qualify for heat rebates, you don’t qualify for rent subsidy, you don’t qualify for anything. The system is broken,” she says.
Steeves says she thinks the problem with the housing crisis is the overall lack of long-term solutions.
“Do you raise minimum wage? Do you put laws in that you can only charge so much for certain dwellings? Do you change the subsidy?” Steeves says.
Burns says he hopes the conference will tackle some of these questions and that attendees will take steps towards positive change to improve access to housing in their communities.
“It’s not just a talk-fest, it’s about people actually making real change in their communities,” Burns says. “Both in terms of the way that they deliver services to people experiencing homelessness, but also in terms of some of the policy changes that need to occur to actually end homelessness.”