Homeless man in tent deserved same welfare rate as housed people, N.S. lawyer argues

CITYnews halifax / By Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — A veteran human rights lawyer tried to convince a Nova Scotia judge on Wednesday that a homeless man living in a tent should have been entitled to the same welfare payments as a person with permanent housing.

Vince Calderhead, a lawyer for Bradley Lowe, a homeless man who died in an encampment last year, told the court it’s reasonable to interpret that the wording of the social assistance regulations permit the higher rate for people living in tents.

“The poor are entitled to the rule of law,” Calderhead, acting on behalf of Lowe’s estate, told the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

Lowe started living in a Halifax tent encampment in a city park in September 2023 and applied for a monthly provincial payment of $950 — the standard rate at the time for people with disabilities living in a household. Instead, the 30-year-old was granted $380 a month to cover “essentials” for people without a home.

On Dec. 7, Calderhead argued before an appeal board to have Lowe’s monthly payment from the Department of Community Services raised. However, Lowe died of an opioid overdose on Dec. 15 at another tent encampment that he was visiting, family members have said.

A few days later, the one-person appeal board dismissed Lowe’s appeal, concluding he hadn’t been eligible for the higher rate. In response, Calderhead sought a judicial review before the Nova Scotia Supreme Court on behalf of Lowe’s estate, seeking to show that people living in tents should receive the higher rate.

Outside the Nova Scotia Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday, Lowe’s mother, Jackie Lowe, said she asked Calderhead to continue with the case in order to recover retroactive payments that could be provided to her four-year-old grandson — and in hopes that a court victory could influence future decisions on income assistance available to homeless people.

“I understood what Bradley was fighting for, and I wanted to honour what he was trying to do and follow through with it, and I understand it could help others in the same situation,” she said.

Nova Scotia’s legislation on social assistance says a person who is renting or owns their own accommodation “must be allowed an amount of assistance at the enhanced standard household rate.”

Calderhead argued before Justice John Keith that the term “accommodation” used in the relevant regulation doesn’t have a legislative definition, and that it is reasonable for the court to infer that it could include a tent. He told Keith the appeal board member — who was not a lawyer — had incorrectly assumed that tents weren’t accommodations, and that the member relied on policies developed by the department staff rather than the actual wording of the law.

“In this matter there’s been a tone that, ‘It’s up to the department to interpret its own regulations,’ but with respect, these aren’t their (the department’s) regulations, they are the people’s regulations,” Calderhead said.

He also disputed arguments from the Department of Community Services that people who rented apartments have higher expenses than people living in tents. Calderhead has presented evidence in the case that tent dwellers often spend far more on prepared food because they don’t have facilities to prepare meals.

The lawyer representing the Department of Community Services, Matthew Ryder, argued that the appeal board’s decision should be upheld because it was “reasonable,” and it would be “legally absurd” to assume that a tent was something that the legislators had intended when drafting the regulations for who was eligible for the household rate.

Ryder said that Keith needs to consider whether the decision of the board fairly took into account the intent of the legislators.

“If we accept the applicant’s position … (Bradley Lowe) would be using funds for reasons very clearly not contemplated by the income assistance regime or by those who drafted the legislation,” Ryder said.

The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia estimated this month there were almost 1,300 homeless people in Halifax.

Jackie Lowe said her hope is that more money for people living in tents could help them to “better themselves and get out of the poverty and the position they’re in and, if they have disabilities, to access resources so they’re not so focused on staying alive on a day-to-day basis.”

“Bradley was more than a homeless person, he was a father and son and a brother. He lost his way in life …. Now I realize he was trying, and he kept trying, to find his way,” she said.

The judge reserved his decision and will rule at a later date.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press