Council votes against turning Halifax Common into tent site
CBC
Halifax regional council has voted against turning a section of the Halifax Common into a dedicated tent site for people experiencing homelessness.
Twelve councillors voted against the motion and four voted in favour of it on Tuesday night. The recommendation was outlined in a homeless strategy report prepared by housing and homelessness director Max Chauvin.
"The only solution to this is to get our asses in gear, spend the money, buy the hard sheds, buy the modulars, buy the prefabs, get the people indoors because we are not ever going to control the tents," said Coun. Shawn Cleary during debate Tuesday evening.
Cleary said he couldn't support making the Common a tent site because it couldn't be "time bounded"
"Unless we have another place for them to go, we can't move them."
The other four recommendations in the report were approved, which included:
An extra recommendation was also approved which called for a staff report to explore the possibility of buying and installing pre-fabricated structures to provide rapid response emergency housing in the municipality.
Earlier Tuesday, the province announced it ended the fiscal year with a $116-million surplus.
"If the provincial government has a surplus after expecting a large deficit, I know where they could spend the money in a way that would help a lot of our fellow human beings," said Mayor Mike Savage.
Some councillors called on the province to do more to help with the homelessness situation.
"We've got to embarrass them into doing something, you know, I say put up tents, all the tents on the common, and then declare a disaster. So maybe then we can get some federal assistance," said Coun. Lisa Blackburn.
"Maybe we can get some provincial assistance. Maybe having the Red Cross come in to help with this will embarrass the province into doing their bloody job."
Coun. Sam Austin said the province needs to be held to account.
"Success is not measured by how much money you're spending. Success is measured by what is the actual impact out there in the world," he said.
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