University Avenue designated encampment in Halifax officially closes

Halifax encampment officially closes A downtown Halifax tent encampment officially closed on Friday.

Friday was eviction day for the residents of the University Avenue tent encampment in Halifax, but 15 or so tents remain on the median.

"They can't stay there because of the winter safety issue," says Max Chauvin, Halifax Regional Municipality’s director of housing and homelessness.

At its peak, there were more than 30 tents on the site. The city handed out eviction notices in late September with Nov. 1 as the deadline to move out.

Chauvin says there won't be a heavy-handed approach to removing the remaining people at University Avenue; instead the municipality plans to help them find a housing solution that works best for them.

"The question is, what's the next step? For those people who are saying, you know, ‘Where we've been able to check, next week I've got this space and so on,’ that certainly something we will work with,” Chauvin says.

There are now five designated encampments in the municipality: Cogswell Park, Lower Flinn Park, the Barrington Street green space, Geary Street and Green Road Park.

As the encampment closes up, RVs are now allowed to move into the Shubie campground in Dartmouth for the winter.

"At this price, I'm just expecting to keep warm eat my food and work," says Josh Vander-Zwaag.

Like all residents, Josh Vander-Zwaag is paying $250 a month for his site. It’s much cheaper than the apartments he looked at after moving back home from out west.

"Depending on the place you were, you could get something cheap but it was kind of really crappy or a decent place was just way too expensive," says Vander-Zwaag.

The province is covering the $145,000 cost of operating the 17 sites. The Halifax Regional Municipality is donating the use of the land.

"There is a waitlist and I believe we probably… we could double the number of sites here we and we would fill it up," says Councillor Tony Mancini.

This is the second year the campground has been open; Mancini hopes it won't be needed again next year.

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