Councillor blasts group building shelters after altercation at Dartmouth park

A councillor in Dartmouth says temporary shelters in public spaces are neededto house people experiencing homelessness, but he takes issue with a volunteergroup that's buildingthe structures.

Coun. Sam Austin wrote in an online postthat Halifax Mutual Aid created a dangerous situation by setting up an unauthorizedshelterat Starr Park in Dartmouth on Saturday.

Police sayan occupantassaulted a nearby resident who approached the shelter around 7 a.m. onMonday. The65-year-old man was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Halifax Mutual Aid is a volunteergroup that buildsthe crisis shelters and deliversthem to public parks and other places. The group says occupants decide where they're located.

"The challenge with Mutual Aid's approach is [that] it's an anonymous group that doesn't do any consultation with anybody else and then drops these shelters into our park spaces with no supporting services," Austin, the councillor for Dartmouth-Centre, told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon on Tuesday.

A 31-year-old man faces charges of assault causing bodily harm and threats to cause death after the altercation on Monday.

Mutual Aid says it will keep building shelters

Halifax Mutual Aid said in a statement that volunteersweresaddened to hear about the incident at the park.

The groupsaid it believes it knows the man who was injured. It said he threatened volunteers andshelter occupants, and it believes he also used power tools to cut a holeinthe shelter.

"We present these details not because the violence was justified, but because Halifax City Council is once again pushing false & misleading narratives that put some of the most vulnerable members of our community at greater risk of violence," the group wrote.

Halifax Mutual Aid said it will continue to build shelters for people who need them.

"The solution to this crisis will not come from further marginalization of those without housing. The solution is safe, dignified housing," the group wrote.

A growing number of emergencyshelters like the one in Starr Park have been built across the city in recent monthsas Nova Scotia deals with anunprecedentedhousing crisis.

Across the bridge,a handful of people have been staying at atent encampment inHalifax's Meagher Park, and there are now nearly two dozen temporaryshelters located on church properties.

"There is a need for the types of shelters that Mutual Aid builds, but not in the way that they're doing them," said Austin.

He wants council to create guidelines about where emergency shelters can be legally set up and what services and supports can be provided to people staying in them.

"There's lots of failure to go around on this in terms of government, and one of the things I think as a municipality we're going to have to confront is we need some rules around where people can shelter in our public spaces because the needs are not going to go away," Austinsaid.

One possibility, said Austin,is placing temporary shelters onmunicipallandthat isn't near homes, playgrounds or schools. He said Starr Park isn't one of those places.

"Where this was dropped is a very prominent, visible, open site," he said. "I've seen people with dogs, sunbathing there in the summer months, kids playing."

Adam Pelley, wholives across the street from the park,said he hopes residents take anempathetic approach to having the shelter nearby.

"I think anybodywould admit that this is animperfect solution to a pretty complicated issue," Pelley said."I think if people are choosing to live in these shelters then it's a better situation for them than the one they're in before."

Municipal staff are working on a report about long and short term solutions to address homelessness in Halifax. The report isexpected to be ready for the next council meeting on May 3.

Meanwhile, the municipality is inching closer to opening up new modular housing unitsin the Centennial Pool parking lot, a project that has been delayed several times.

In its latest update, the municipality said that an occupancy permit has been issued for 36 units at the site, but that an exact move-in date still depends on the province.