With modular units on horizon, city wants Halifax park used as tent site returned to community use

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said he wants to return Meagher Park, called People's Park by some, to community use in the coming weeks. 

The small park in the west end of Halifax is currently being used as a tent site by people without housing since August.

Speaking to Mainstreet Nova Scotia on Wednesday, Savage said the city is working with the provincial government to create housing options for people living in the park.

"[Housing is] not a municipal responsibility. But I know the province is working hard at this as well," he said.

"The minister and I have had a number of conversations about how do we get permanent solutions, but in the meantime, we are doing things."

He said the city made a major investment through setting up 26 modular housing units in Dartmouth, with 38 still to come in Halifax. The Halifax units were supposed to be ready by the end of January, but that date was recently pushed to May 6.

Additionally, he said, other units are being built under the Rapid Housing Initiative, including some at a former motel in Dartmouth.

According to Savage, many people living in Meagher Park are looking for a sense of community and belonging and the modular units can provide that.

He said the goal is to work peacefully with groups like P.A.D.S. Community Network, which offers support to those staying at the park, to find a solution that makes sense for everyone involved.

However Victoria Levack of P.A.D.S. told Mainstreet Nova Scotia that the modular units were like "putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound."

She said she received an email from the the city's chief administrative officer, Jacques Dubé, saying that he hoped to work with the organization to help clear the park in the coming weeks.

"Let me be very clear," Levack said. "We will not help you clear the park if there's nowhere else for these people to go."

According to Levack, no offers of long-term housing have yet been made to those staying at the park, who have no where else to go. Many have been kicked out of the shelter system due to mental illness or other issues, she said.

Until there are permanent, accessible and dignified solutions for people living there, Levack said, the municipality has no business clearing people out of the park. 

Savage said one of the reasons the idea of modular units was chosen was that there are people who need special care that cannot go into other types of housing.

Savage said he and municipal councillors have also been responding to the concerns of residents near Meagher Park while at the same time keeping in mind the human rights of people who are unhoused.

"And that happened before August the 18th when we had these other encampment areas, businesses and individuals were affected ," he said, referring to the day city police cleared dozens of tents and shelters at the old Spring Garden library site and arrested and pepper sprayed protesters.

"And not just people who don't like the sight of poverty, as one might think, but people who are really concerned about people, their health and safety as well as those of themselves and and their families."

He said while housing is a human right, people can't be forced to go into housing if they don't want to for various reasons.

Savage said the city has to work with those people and work with the province to provide wrap-around support for those individuals.