The modular units for unhoused people in Halifax are facing another round of delays, with the buildings not expected to be habitable until well into the spring.
The units were initially announced in September 2021 as the city faced backlash following Halifax Regional Police’s forcible removal of unhoused people living in tents and temporary shelters in a park outside the old Spring Garden Road Memorial Library on Aug. 18.
That fall, city officials said the aim was to get modular units in both Dartmouth and Halifax up and running before the winter, but the project has since been plagued by delays.
It would take until mid-January for the units in Dartmouth, which can house up to 26 people, to be finished.
When the city announced in December 2021 that the Halifax modular units will be located at the Centennial Pool parking lot, it said they were expected to be finished by “late January 2022.”
But in the municipality’s latest update this month, it said the anticipated occupancy date for the Halifax site, which could house up to 38 individuals, is now May 6.
“Unlike with the Dartmouth location, the intention is to wait until the kitchen unit is operational prior to occupancy,” the city said.
The budget for the project is about $4.9 million. Earlier in the month, council voted to redirect $206,000 from education to funds that support purchasing and maintaining modular units.
Meanwhile, as city shelters struggle with capacity and rental vacancy rates remain low, some unhoused people have spent the winter living in Meagher Park, also known as People’s Park, in Halifax’s west end.
Laura Patterson, a volunteer at the park, said the ongoing delays for the modular units show the city is not treating homelessness with the urgency it requires.
“There’s been no actual emergency response to what is happening, to what is a rapidly growing issue,” she said.
‘We waited too long’
But Patterson said the units – which will house just over 60 people between them – are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to addressing Halifax’s housing crisis.
According to the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia, there were 500 people in Halifax experiencing homelessness as of March 15, 382 of whom are chronically homeless.
“Just thinking about the modulars, it doesn’t even begin to touch what’s happening,” said Patterson.
“It’s great that they’re going to be coming, but there’s a really, really, really big problem now, and it’s been a huge problem all winter, and nobody’s doing anything.”
Although the modular units are expected this spring and more affordable housing is slated to be built, Patterson said the problem has been left unaddressed far too long.
She said there’s been a lack of funding over the years for things like public housing, shelters and warming centres.
“We waited too long to fund any of that stuff,” she said. “The longer anybody waits to act on an issue like the park, if you keep banking on something else happening in the future, you’re always going to be behind.”
She said there has been little help from the government at the park, and things like the provision of food, water and medical supplies have been largely being left up to unpaid, untrained volunteers.
Not only are they not getting enough help, Patterson said, but the city and the police are actively working against them – most recently, by taking down a structure being used to store food.
“We’re not here because we love the park or anything like that,” she said. “We’re here because people are really suffering here, and they need a little bit of help, whatever help they get.”
There were just a handful of people staying at People’s Park when Global News spoke with Patterson on Tuesday, but the number of residents fluctuates based on how many shelter spots are available and if they are able to find a place to sleep elsewhere.
These include places like bank foyers and building stairwells, where they can get some respite from the cold.
With spring around the corner, Patterson expects more people will begin staying at the park in the coming weeks.
“The park is a very visible part of the problem, but there’s a huge hidden number of unhoused people in the city,” she said. “When it warms up, we’re going to see them start moving out in tents, and we’re going to start seeing them a lot.”
She worries about the potential for another Aug. 18-style eviction, which she said would be traumatic and scary for the park residents.
“It would be such a horrifying, traumatic thing. And it’s something that’s so needless, when they could act now and act like it’s an emergency,” said Patterson.
Mayor satisfied with homelessness response
In an interview, Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said he was “absolutely” satisfied that the city is doing enough to house people.
Noting that housing is a provincial responsibility, he said he believes the city has done “amazing work” on the modular units, despite the continued delays.
“Nothing is going easily these days – supply chain issues, it’s hard to get labour, costs have escalated,” he said.
“We didn’t have anything six months ago. We had nothing.… We were working with the province, but we didn’t have any direct housing that we controlled for people who were homeless.
“We now have 26 units on the Dartmouth side, we’ll soon have 38 on the Halifax side that we control directly.”
Savage said everything is behind schedule, in both the private sector and public sector, and staff are working “exceptionally long hours” to get the modular units up and running.
“We could put something up, but it would be subsistence, and it wouldn’t be the kind of dignified living that I believe every person deserves to have,” he said.
Savage also said the city is working with the provincial and federal governments on the rapid housing initiative, and about 140 units will be made available through that.
‘Not our intent’ to have repeat of Aug. 18
In terms of the people staying at the park, Savage said the city is “reluctant” to move people out of the park until they are sure they have accommodations that suit them. The people living at Meagher Park will be offered spots at the modular units in Halifax, he said.
The mayor said it’s a “balancing act” between taking a “humane approach” to homelessness and recognizing that people want to use the park.
“At the end of the day, that park belongs to everybody and there’s a lot of people who are excluded from that park now,” he said.
Asked if, given the expected rise of people living in tents this summer, the city will involve police in removing them as they did on Aug. 18, Savage said it’s “not our intent.”
However, he said police “will act if safety is in danger.”
“Our intention has never been to remove people … unless it’s provoked by people trying to make a point, that’s not going to be our intent,” he said.
“That doesn’t mean that people can just not follow the laws of the municipality, but it’s not our intent to have to do that again. That’s not something anybody wants to see.”
Calls for a moratorium
In a news release Tuesday evening, P.A.D.S. Community Advocacy Network, which advocates for permanent, accessible, dignified and safe housing, said it is “greatly concerned” that people living outside will face an increased threat of criminalization as spring approaches.
The group is continuing its call for a moratorium on park evictions as there are “simply not” enough options to meet the needs of the hundreds of people experiencing homelessness.
“As such, people will continue to need to take up space to shelter in public places until that time when the number of sheltering options matches the number of people in need,” it said.
Under Halifax’s bylaw respecting municipal parks, council has the power to use discretion to expand permitted use of the park space “in such a way that might protect the human rights of unhoused persons,” the release said.
Section 8 of the bylaw states that nobody can set up a place in the park to provide temporary or permanent accommodation – “without permission.”
P.A.D.S. says it has sent a letter to all councillors asking to read this section of the bylaw “and consider bringing forward a motion that would allow council as a whole to look at applying the discretion afforded to them.”
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