HALIFAX – Many Haligonians are preparing for winter and bundling up to fight the cold, and the same goes for most vulnerable part of the population: people facing homelessness.
Michael Paul Bramwell has been living at the Salvation Army shelter on Gottingen Street for the past two weeks.
He said he’s fortunate to have a room at the facility because, like many people, he can’t stand the cold.
“The pain, the cold, the damp, it really affects me,” he said. “It’s going to get worse. It’s going to be a bad winter.”
Fortunately, there are several shelters in the Halifax area, but many are already seeing an uptick in interest and demand.
Paul Craig, the residential co-ordinator for the Salvation Army shelter, said the number of clients at the facility always rises as temperatures drop.
“It gets a little tough facing the elements, so people show up a little more often,” he said.
The Salvation Army can house 40 to 60 clients at a time.
Craig said the shelter is often at capacity during the winter months.
“There’s a lot of reasons people will come here, but certainly in the winter, weather becomes a big one,” he said.
“What happens is people’s choices that they have starting shrinking up and become limited. Some folks will choose to stay on the street, to stay on the park bench, to stay somewhere that’s not a safe venture for them to stay. Those choices, when weather hits, don’t become an option any longer.”
It’s a similar story at the Phoenix Youth Shelter, which has space for 20 young people between the ages of 12 and 24.
Rob Morris, director of residential programs at Phoenix, said staff have been fielding more phone calls from youth inquiring about shelter.
Morris said the Phoenix is normally pretty full, but he expects it to get even busier in the coming months.
“When winter comes along, we do have some conversations with youth around getting settled and making sure they have a safe place to be over the course of the winter,” he said.
Morris said the shelter has a cold-weather protocol that gets enacted during major snow storms and sharp dips in temperatures, where they will open additional beds and have extra staff on hand.
The need for more shelters for people facing homelessness is why the Out of the Cold Shelter was created.
The emergency shelter, which runs out of Saint Matthew’s United Church in downtown Halifax, started five years ago and has 15 beds.
Volunteer organizer Kevin Kindred said the shelter is critical in filling gaps in the system where people cannot find space in another shelter.
“This shelter is really a temporary stopgap measure,” he said.
“We serve some of the guests who, for one reason or another, can’t access another shelter, whether it’s full or the rules at other shelters prevent them from accessing it,” he said.
Kindred said historically the shelter is full every night it’s open and he doesn’t expect otherwise this year.
The shelter opens Nov. 24 and because it’s almost entirely volunteer run, relies heavily on the public.
“We’re still in the process of recruiting and interviewing volunteers,” he said. “If anyone is interested, I’d encourage them to contact us or Saint Matthew’s Church.”
Don Spicer, the executive director of Shelter Nova Scotia, said it’s important for people to recognize that homelessness is not just an issue that comes up in the winter.
“As soon as it starts to get cold, people start to think about the homelessness issue and expect that it gets worse…In fact, it’s there year-round,” he said.
He wants people to empathize with the plight of people facing homelessness.
“The cold itself, it’s very uncomfortable. Just think about leaving your home in the morning and waiting in your cold car, how uncomfortable that can be. Imagine not having the home and the car to begin with, and having to be in the elements all the time.”
Spicer said that more affordable housing may be a solution to solve the municipality’s homelessness issue.
But until that happens, those like Bramwell will have to bundle up and do their best to survive Mother Nature’s wrath.
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