A rally for housing rights is underway in downtown Halifax, in the same place where exactly one year ago, city police forcibly evicted unhoused people living in an encampment.
The march and rally began at 5 p.m. in front of the Old Library near Spring Garden Road.
It was hosted by Halifax Mutual Aid, Out of the Cold Shelter and P.A.D.S. (Permanent, Accessible, Dignified, Safe Housing For All).
As of 7 p.m., more than 200 people were at the site before marching.
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Drew Moore, a volunteer with P.A.D.S., says the event will be “in part commemorating, remembering what happened here last year. But also envisioning doing a collective process of envisioning a future where we are addressing the housing and homelessness crisis without the use of police force.”
Moore said safety is often jeopardized by the actions of police.
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“That’s something that we saw that occurred last August, when people were being kicked out of the only form of shelter that they were able to find, because we’re in a housing crisis that is endangering the health and safety of people.”
According to data from the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia, there were 316 people who were chronically homeless — without adequate housing for six months or more — in the HRM at the end of August last year
This week, that number is 469 – an increase of 153 people, or by nearly 50 per cent.
Moore said what’s being done by government at the moment “does not match the magnitude of the situation that we’re in,” adding that what’s needed is non-market housing solutions.
“We are in a serious housing crisis that’s exacerbating a serious homelessness crisis.”
Moore said the objective for Thursday’s commemorative rally is engaging the community in talking about solutions.
“We’re going to have conversations, take notes on the sidewalk of things of the world that they imagine a better world.”
At around 7 p.m., hundreds of people marched down Grafton Street chanting “homes not cops” — the theme of the rally.
The chant responds to last year’s protest to the encampment evictions, which turned violent.
On Aug. 17, 2021, dozens of Halifax Regional Police officers descended on parks around the municipality to remove unhoused people staying in crisis shelters and tents. Hundreds of people poured into the city’s downtown, by the Old Library, to protest the shelter removal. This resulted in officers deploying pepper spray into crowds of people and more than two dozen arrests.
Asaf Rashid, a Halifax lawyer who defended 18 of the 26 people arrested by police last August, said most have had their charges dropped.
“People had nowhere else to go,” Rashid said at Thursday’s rally.
“The crisis wasn’t getting any better but here are the police clearing people from these encampments and then arresting all these community members who showed up to tried to support these people that were in the most dire straits.”
Rashid said there’s still a long way to go.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s any concern about all these expenses going into dealing with criminal charges ensuing from that event, when those resources are better put into housing.”
— With files from Alex Cooke and Alexa MacLean.
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