With homelessness numbers in HRM at alarmingly high rates a group of anonymous volunteers has decided it’s time to act. They are building small structures for people experiencing homelessness.
When COVID-19 hit, Nova Scotia’s provincial prisoner population was reduced by 41 percent in just a few months. The women’s unit at Central Nova was down to just seven prisoners. Now all that work has been undone, write Ashley Avery and Emma Halpern.
More than 250 people took part in an online Halifax Housing Symposium Monday. The event was hosted by the Housing and Homelessness Partnership. Stephen Wentzell attended and heard from advocates and people directly affected by rising rents, evictions, the pandemic and skyrocketing homelessness.
Three community-based organizations serving criminalized people in Nova Scotia have developed and launched a pilot housing project to support people exiting jail during the global pandemic Covid-19.
There is a severe housing crisis in Halifax and many other Nova Scotia towns. As in most any crisis, it’s painful for everybody, but the very poor, and especially also the racialized poor, are bearing the brunt. However, when you listen to Housing Nova Scotia senior bureaucrats at yesterday’s Community Services Standing Committee you do not get a sense of urgency.