Halifax rolls out new initiative to get homeless people ready to vote

Ahead of the upcoming municipal election, Halifax Regional Municipality is rolling out a new initiative to get approximately 140 homeless people ready to vote.

Outreach workers have been visiting homeless encampments and shelters to make sure the people living there know they have a right to vote on Oct. 19 or in advanced polls, and ensuring they have the documentation to do so. 

The navigators are providing a letter that states their name and address, so as long as the person is 18 and has lived in the province for more than six months, they can vote.

"One of the things we're hearing from candidates is that housing is a big issue," said Max Chauvin, the municipality's director of housing and homelessness. "So we want to make sure that the person who is unhoused knows, 'My voice can be heard. I can participate in that.'"

Chauvin said the program includes the designated encampment sites at Green Road Park and Geary Street in Dartmouth and Lower Flinn Park, Cogswell Park and the Barrington Street Green Space in Halifax, as well as the recently de-designated space on University Avenue. If outreach workers are aware of people sleeping in tents in other areas, they'll visit them and provide letters as well.

Iain MacLean, the municipal clerk and returning officer, said this initiative is all part of making elections more accessible. 

"That's the important part of this, it's providing an opportunity," MacLean said. "We know not everybody's going to vote in the HRM. We want to make sure we do everything in our power to make sure everybody who wants to has that ability and a safe, secure, but also accessible, manner."

MacLean said other jurisdictions have heard about this initiative and contacted HRM for advice on how to implement something similar.

Chauvin said some people who have been approached by navigators have expressed they're not interested in voting. But he said generally the response has been positive.

"A number of people have said that it was really nice and they felt very good about the fact that somebody came and told them that they mattered."