City officials remove remaining tents on Halifax Common

CITYnews halifax / By Chris Halef

City officials have removed the remaining tents of an encampment on the Halifax Common after issuing a notice for people experiencing homelessness to vacate earlier this month.

In a statement, the HRM said it issued the notice March 3, giving the eight people who were sheltering until March 16 to relocate elsewhere. The Halifax Common is not one of the city’s designated tenting locations.

According to the municipality, as of 9 a.m. there were still four tents at the site, but after staff visited all four, they confirmed there was no one sheltering in them and have since cleaned up the area.

“Over the past two weeks, the municipality has taken a number of steps to provide support to those who had been sleeping rough at this site,” the statement said. “Municipal compliance staff and housing and homelessness coordinators have visited multiple times to offer supports and resources.”

According to HRM, as of last Friday, there were 30 tents and five trailers at the five designated locations.

All locations were chosen for their proximity to public transit and other services, and for their distance from schools, parks, gardens, or culturally sensitive areas.