News release: As the city council meets to discuss its strategy for engaging unhoused community members in the aftermath of last week’s mass evictions, P.A.D.S. Community Network is calling on the city to cease all removals of people living in parks.
Martyn Williams: “By initiating violence against a protesting but unprotected crowd in a public area, police did not acknowledge their responsibility to ensure events didn’t escalate harmfully in a way that ultimately endangered everyone in this central pedestrian area including children, seniors and people with disabilities.”
Media release: P.A.D.S. Community Network is a group of unhoused people, community members, and volunteers sharing space at Chebucto and Dublin Streets (at the space formerly known as Meagher Park now renamed People’s Park).
Sunil Sarwal reflects on the forceful eviction by Halifax police and city of poor people living in tents and crisis shelters.
Equity Watch: The most violent police conduct occurred in the front yard of the former (now empty) Halifax public library on Spring Garden Road. The library, which has been vacant for more than five years, could be home to scores of Haligonians without homes.
PSA: As an agency providing housing and support to those involved in the justice system—we are troubled by a response to homelessness that employed punitive strategies which were harmful and traumatizing.
Brenda Thompson on the city’s long history of pushing poor people out of sight on the very site of this week’s violent evictions. “The crappy treatment of poor people on this piece of land is historic.”
Media release: Wellness Within is appalled by the forced eviction of unhoused people from tents and shelters and police brutality unleashed on their supporters in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) yesterday, August 18.
Media advisory: The Dalhousie Legal Aid Service condemns yesterdays’ efforts by the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) to remove 40 occupants of tents and temporary shelters from public parks across the city. From media reports, it appears that the HRM’s actions constitute multiple human rights violations. We take issue with both the HRM’s decision to evict and with the city’s failure to adequately consult with community stakeholders before taking action on this decision.
With affordable housing at such a premium everywhere in Nova Scotia people are pointing at vacant lots and empty buildings in towns and cities all across Nova Scotia and wondering why we can’t do better. Now there is a mapping application, This should be housing, that exposes the extent of these opportunities.