A Nova Scotia town is calling on the province to close its local homeless shelter and work on a transition plan for the facility’s residents. New Glasgow Town Council passed a unanimous motion Monday, asking for the Northstar Shelter – formerly known as Viola’s Place – to “cease operations immediately.” “We felt that we have talked enough,” Mayor Nancy Dicks told CTV News. “We have talked to other people, talked to each other, researched, we have talked exhaustively about it, and there comes a time when the talking has to stop and action needs to happen.” The shelter has become a source of division in the community and has been blamed for a spike in vandalism, thefts and open drug use. “I don’t want anyone to feel or think that the town council does not have great compassion for those that are experiencing many of the traumas and addictions and unhoused situations that they are in. That’s certainly not where we are coming from,” said Dicks. “But the safety of all our citizens is equally as important.” Deputy Mayor Dawn Peters adds the local police chief told a public meeting last October that more than $1 million has been spent addressing those issues. “We feel that the current shelter that is in place does not meet their needs adequately, which is why we are seeing an increase in safety issues within our downtown,” said Peters. “Not only that, we have a lot of financial burden as well.” Peters notes the shelter is close to a school, and some businesses have chosen to leave downtown New Glasgow due to public safety concerns. “We are seeing an increase in crime, an increase in drug use, open illicit drug use in our streets and dirty needles in public spaces,” she said. The Town of New Glasgow says it wants to work with the province and community partners to develop a transition plan to ensure people who use the shelter continue to receive housing, mental health, addictions, and other supports. The town adds it wants to move beyond an emergency shelter model and focus on co-ordinated services that help people in crisis access treatment and housing. “Council is calling for a more comprehensive, health-focused continuum of care that includes treatment, residential rehabilitation programs, mental health supports in addition to counselling services and staff who can support pathways to supportive and transitional housing,” said the Town of New Glasgow in a statement Tuesday. Dicks notes the shelter is funded by the Nova Scotia government, so a decision to close the shelter has to be made by the province. “The town has no recourse,” she said. “All of these issues lay within the province, and we would like that all of the departments, the provincial departments, consider this a priority on their plates.” The Nova Scotia government has not commented on the matter at this time. Shelter critical of council’s motion The Northstar Shelter has released a four-page statement in response, criticizing the town’s call to close the facility, and calling on New Glasgow to “participate meaningfully in building solutions rather than creating additional barriers.” The organization says it has listened to the concerns raised by council, implemented many of the recommended measures, and it agrees that the region needs a stronger continuum of care. However, it says it’s “unacceptable” for the town to place “responsibility on a charity for homelessness, housing shortages, mental illness, addiction and community safety concerns that are far beyond the capacity of any shelter to solve.” “A single charity cannot solve system-level fractures and should not be expected to,” it adds. “We all have a role to play, and we are doing our part 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.” The shelter notes it opposed the displacement of about 38 people from properties demolished by the town in 2023 and 2024, and says it warned that removing them without adequate housing alternatives would have serious consequences for the greater community and the people themselves. The charity says it’s concerned the town is calling for the closure of the region’s only emergency homeless shelter while an alternative service does not yet exist. “We can disagree about the role or location of an emergency shelter. We can have difficult conversations about community safety. We can also acknowledge that the current systems in our province are not working well enough,” said the Northstar Shelter in its statement. “But if Council genuinely cares about vulnerable members of our community and wants New Glasgow to become healthier and safer for everyone, the solution cannot be to remove the only service currently providing support to these individuals.” The organization is calling on the town to identify concrete steps it’s prepared to take to address create solutions to address the homelessness and addiction crisis in the area. Public safety concerns The shelter first opened in 2018 and was forced to expand in 2022 due to increased demand. The team helps with housing, medical, mental health and addiction support and an outreach team checks on people living in encampments. But some New Glasgow residents and business owners near the shelter have raised safety concerns, including public drug use, assaults, property damage and theft. The complaints prompted the town to hold a public meeting about the facility on Oct. 1, 2025. After the meeting, the town submitted some requests to the shelter, including changing the name from Viola’s Place. “We have also asked them, because this has been asked by Viola’s Desmond’s family, is that they do look at a name change,” said Dicks in December 2025. The shelter was named after Nova Scotia civil rights activist Viola Desmond, a Black businesswoman who challenged racial discrimination when she refused to leave the whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow in 1946. The organization announced in June the facility would be renamed to Northstar Shelter and Support Services, though it’s still legally registered as Viola’s Place Society. The town formed a committee in January to explore solutions, including possibly relocating the shelter. But Dicks said Tuesday the committee feels it has exhausted all options and no longer wants to relocate. Instead, they want to see the shelter close and eventually establish a long-term residential treatment centre. “We would like that all of the departments, the provincial departments, consider this a priority on their plates,” said Dicks. “If we can all sit down together and not say, ‘that’s somebody else’s problem,’ and not push it to someone else, it is my hope that something meaningful can happen.” Final decisions about closing or relocating the shelter are ultimately up to the province. With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Emma Convey For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
