Officials preparing for more people living on streets as weather warms up: City of Halifax

Halifax is getting ready for more people living on the streets as the weather warms up.

While the province of Nova Scotia claims there’s progress in getting people into shelters, city officials are getting ready for more people living on the streets as the weather warms up.

In the city, the by-name list still has 1,197 people on it – 667 in shelters, 195 unsheltered, 303 defined as hidden homeless which includes those who are in hospital, correctional facilities or are couch surfing, and 32 others didn’t respond on the survey.

“Since February really, we’ve had more beds in HRM available for people than there have been sleeping rough,” said Suzanne Ley, executive director of Opportunities and Social Development.

The province says there is availability in all types of supportive housing, from emergency shelters to tiny homes.

The goal now is to move those still staying in tents, into those vacant accommodations.

“For the most part, they are people that cannot sustain themselves in a shelter environment whether it’s because they’re using drugs or they have alcoholism or they have mental health issues,” said Marie-France LeBlanc, CEO of the North End Community Centre.

Some of them are staying in the city’s five designated encampment sites, two of which are in Dartmouth and the other three are in Halifax. Combined, the sites are meant to hold 42 people, but there are 60 staying in them.

“Yes, they are above capacity at different levels depending on the site. There is space at some and others are more crowded,” said Max Chauvin, HRM Housing and Homelessness director.

Chauvin is bracing for more as the number of people living in tents tends to grow in the summer months.

“We haven’t seen a lot of that yet. Still do expect that to happen certainly in May and June,” he said.

Chauvin says he doesn’t see the city opening more encampment sites to handle the increase. With overall homelessness numbers trending downward, the province is now looking to transfer funds from emergency shelters to more long-term solutions.

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