Municipal staff recommend allowing tents at a handful of Halifax-area parks

Municipal staff are proposing the creation of a limited number of city-sanctioned tent sites in response to the housing crisis, but advocates for unhoused Haligonians worry the recommendation will mean forced eviction for people sleeping in municipal parks.

In a员工报告公园和娱乐特殊项目经理Max Chauvin以及公园和娱乐执行董事Maggie MacDonald于周二举行的虚拟会议，制定了一项计划，允许在HRM的公园里进行一些帐篷。

“在认识到一些人将unable or unwilling to accept indoor shelter and that demand for indoor shelter beds exceeds capacity, it is proposed the municipality designate spaces for outdoor overnight sheltering,” Chauvin and MacDonald wrote.

An emergency shelter sits under a tree in a park. There is a blue and grey tent, an orange tent, and another emergency shelter in the background

在2021年8月，在都柏林街和Chebucto Road的拐角处看到帐篷和紧急避难所，那里的居民和活动家称其为People's Park。照片：赞恩·伍德福德

There are 562 people experiencing homelessness in HRM as of April 27,根据新斯科舍省的负担得起的住房协会，市政当局只有220张庇护所。

In response, Chauvin and MacDonald’s plan would allow 20 people to stay in parks long-term, while allowing another 44 to sleep in select parks overnight.

“建议指定两种类型的空间。第一个是仅一晚停留，一个人可以在晚上8点后设置帐篷，但必须在第二天早上8点之前将其删除并从该位置继续前进。第二个是多夜的住宿地点，一个人可以在那里搭一个帐篷，并让它站立几天和夜晚。在这两种情况下，指定的地点仅旨在为那些经历无家可归的人提供庇护而不是休闲露营的人提供一个空间。” Chauvin和MacDonald写道。

“A maximum of 4 tents per site is proposed in order to contain the size and complexity of management of the locations. Depending on site configuration, some locations may only be able to a smaller number of tents.”

The locations are chosen based on several criteria, including that they not be close to schools and playgrounds or even “horticultural displays or gardens.” The long-term locations would have washroom facilities, and where possible, potable water.

工作人员报告包括拟议地点的列表⁠-五个长期和11个过夜。他们在下面映射。

Not on the list is People’s Park, known to the municipality as Meagher Park, at the corner of Chebucto Road and Dublin Street. An ever-changing number of people have been living there ever since the municipality and police evicted people from other parks on August 18, 2021, when policepepper sprayed and arrested protesters在春季花园路的前哈利法克斯纪念图书馆外捍卫紧急庇护所。

尽管Chauvin和MacDonald承认执法行动使人们在HRM及其居民之间受到了创伤和损害的信任，但他们的报告让同一件事再次发生。

“如果未指定庇护所的区域中帐篷，庇护所或其他结构的乘员拒绝移动，并且已经为居住者提供了适当的住房替代方案或指定区域的空间，则市政当局可能要求乘员通过执法行动进行行动，” Chauvin和MacDonald写道。

P.A.D.S.社区网络formed to support the residents of People’s Park, and has beenlobbying councillors to allow sheltering in all municipal parks。In line with the new report,councillors saidtheir preferred approach was to selected a handful of designated parks.

In astatement星期一，P.A.D.S.Chauvin和MacDonald表示，在撰写报告时，没有咨询任何不受欢迎的人。While they recommend working with the United Way to create a committee of people with experience of homelessness, the report doesn’t say whether the authors consulted with any unhoused people before writing, just “dozens of service providers, stakeholders, staff, and residents.”

P.A.D.S.is worried people will now face greater risk of violent eviction at the hands of city staff or people.

“简而言之,这份报告提供了除了更多criminalization for the unhoused residents already suffering the indignity of homelessness. With the meager addition of 20 outdoor sites with the minimal infrastructure that it promises, it strips unhoused people of the little security that they have found over the last many months, without even the dignity of consultation,” P.A.D.S. wrote.

“If passed, this process will no doubt lead to unhoused people being forced to downgrade their current accommodations out of fear. It reads as nothing more than a formal procedure before removing unhoused people ⁠— and encouraging them to remove themselves from sight.”

同样，匿名志愿者团体互助互助哈利法克斯（Halifaxcall to actionin response to the report.

“This report threatens violent evictions and further criminalization of our unhoused friends and neighbours if they refuse to be forced into inadequate, government-mandated encampment sites,” Mutual Aid wrote.

该组织希望其支持者向议员们施加压力，要求选择Chauvin和MacDonald报告中列出的一种替代方案，以“允许在市政公园的任何地方庇护”，如P.A.D.S.要求。

理事会在下午2点开会，会议广播here。