The decision by front line workers at the Out of the Cold Community Association to unionize is mostly about making sure that the current positive working conditions continue, and maybe to offer a bit of an example to care sector workers elsewhere who aren’t as fortunate.
PSA: We are aware that what we are doing is not a solution to the housing crisis in our city nor it is a solution to homelessness, that said we would rather build safe, secure shelters using our limited resources than leave fellow community members to die outside in the cold this winter.
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.
Several organizations and community members in Dartmouth North are putting out a call for help to provide new winter coats, hats, and mitts to children and adults in need.
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.
“Black Lives Matter. Does mine? I faced some of my biggest hurdles this year. I was reminded daily that I matter, and reminded daily that I don’t. This pandemic has opened my eyes in some big ways and I am forever grateful.” Martha Mutale reflects on her work at a Halifax shelter.
Proper housing is a human right, and everybody who is homeless deserves the relative safety and dignity provided by a hotel room, if not a home. This is always the case, not just during a pandemic, but now more than ever. It is time for the province to do its share.
s COVID-19 cases rise, hundreds of underhoused Nova Scotians are unable to practice social distancing. Nova Scotia ACORN is calling on the City of Halifax to open up empty hotel rooms to people in need of proper housing during the pandemic.
Today Kelly Regan, Minister of Community Services, joined the daily COVID-19 government press conference to discuss what her department is doing to help income assistance recipients and other low income people. Not very much at all, it turns out.