HRM set to remove University Avenue as designated homeless encampment site

Halifax Regional Municipality is removing one of its designated downtown homeless encampment sites, citing safety reasons in advance of winter snow removal operations. 

Notices were placed Tuesday morning on each of the 24 tents set up in the grassy median that runs up the middle of University Avenue in the city's south end, advising people they have to vacate the green space over the next five weeks. 

"There is a lot of risk to folks in that area during snow and ice control operations and you can imagine really big industrial snowplows going through that area," said Max Chauvin, the municipality's director of housing and homelessness.

"The risk of injury is really, really high and that's why we are giving them until Nov. 1, to give them a chance to get out before the snow flies and we have those risky situations happening."

The notices say people will be offered resources and supports in advance of the deadline. That includes transportation of people and their belongings to provincially funded indoor shelter and housing options, or to other municipally designated locations that are available. Temporary storage of belongings will also be offered by the municipality.

"The questions now centre around what do people need to successfully locate somewhere else," said Chauvin. "What kind of services will they need to access and what wrap-around supports do they need."

But a volunteer street navigator who does not work for the city and deals with the University Avenue tenters on a daily basis says those supports are simply not available for some of the people dealing with serious mental health issues. The notices delivered Tuesday will only make their conditions worsen, said Tamara Stein.

"When you receive notices like this, you then go into another form of trauma," said Stein. "The city is just adding to the trauma that these people already have that there are no services for them to deal with it because our system is broken in so many ways."

Stein said there are three dozen people living in the tents, which are set up in a very busy area near hospitals and Dalhousie University.

The notice said that under the Protection of Property Act, any encampment residents who don't leave by the deadline could be arrested and removed from the property. They could also be subject to a fine.

There are five other municipally designated homeless encampment sites in Halifax Regional Municipality. Three are in Halifax and two are near downtown Dartmouth.