HRM set to remove University Avenue as designated homeless encampment site - Action News
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Nova Scotia

HRM set to remove University Avenue as designated homeless encampment site

The municipality is retracting the designation of one of its homeless encampment sites due to safety reasons. With winter on the way, the city wants tents gone from the south-end street by Nov. 1.

People living in tents along busy south-end Halifax street have to be gone by Nov. 1

tents on grass near a roadway
Tents on University Avenue in Halifax on Aug. 1, 2024. (Paul Lgre/Radio-Canada)

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."

A group of tents in a grassy area
University Avenue in Halifax will no longer be a municipally designated homeless encampment site as of Nov. 1. (Paul Palmeter/CBC)

The notices saypeople 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."

A sheet of paper with the notice written on it
This is the notice placed Tuesday morning on the two dozen tents in south-end Halifax. (Paul Palmeter/CBC)

But a volunteer street navigator who does not work for the cityand deals with the University Avenue tenters on a daily basissays 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."

A group of tents in a row with a bench in front of them
The municipality says these tents need to go so snowplows can operate safely during the winter and not put anyone at risk of injury. (Paul Palmeter/CBC)

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

The notice said thatunder the Protection of Property Act, anyencampment residents who don't leave by the deadlinecould 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.