Electricity cut to shrinking Halifax homeless encampment as temperatures plunge

Halifax officials delivered on a promise Friday to cut electricity to the dozen or so people living in a homeless encampment outside City Hall.

Halifax officials delivered on a promise Friday to cut electricity to the dozen or so people living in a homeless encampment set up last fall outside city hall.

As of 9 a.m., all but one of the 12 remaining tents in the public square known as Grand Parade had no heat source as the temperature hovered around -11 C and a westerly wind made it feel like -19 C.

"Here we are on one of the coldest days of the year and they're turning off the power," said Steven Wilsack, a volunteer who for the past three months has been helping encampment residents. "The system is broken."

Wilsack said he asked government officials to leave a generator running during the cold snap, but he said his request was ignored.

"This is just another trigger that is going to put people over the edge," Wilsack said in an interview as he surveyed the square from inside a parked truck. "People could freeze." He said one tent has a propane heater.

Among those staying at the site are a pregnant woman and her partner, another couple, one resident who is battling chronic pain and a number of other people who are dealing with mental illnesses or addictions, he said.

"They are people who are broken," Wilsack said.