Friends of Downtown Halifax

09/03/2024

As library workers enter their second week of job action, our beautiful downtown library remains closed to the public. Two items require resolution: higher wages and staff safety concerns - mainly due to increased confrontations with individuals experiencing mental health and drug addiction issues.

In a recent article, a library staffer at the North End Library noted that he responds to multiple drug overdose incidents each week, where he applies Narcan/Naloxone and contacts 911 for an ambulance. This happens despite the existence of a designated safe injection site one block away (Brunswick Street Mission). Staff in downtown Halifax and Dartmouth libraries have similar experiences.

While it is understood that drug use in the library is prohibited, the Halifax public library’s customer conduct policy only uses general language against activity that “prevents the enjoyment of the library by others”, and directs customers to use “library property and materials as intended”. Presumably, library bathrooms are not intended for drug consumption.

We call on the Halifax Public Library to update their customer conduct policy and be more prescriptive about what constitutes prohibited conduct. The update will provide respondents with a clearer policy reference when handling non-compliance issues and banning repeat offenders. It will also bring our conduct policy in line with other Canadian jurisdictions.

From the most progressive to the most conservative, nearly all major cities have specific language against drug use and intoxication on the premises.

We dug into library policies of other Canadian jurisdictions to provide the following non-exhaustive list, with quotes from each city’s library conduct policy:

——
VANCOUVER, BC:

Public libraries are for everyone’s use and enjoyment. For the benefit and safety of others, library users must NOT:

• Consume alcohol, be drunk or disorderly, or use illicit drugs
• Sleep, or place feet on library furniture

——
VICTORIA, BC:

As a user of the Greater Victoria Public Library, I agree to:

• abstain from trafficking, consuming, or being under the obvious influence of controlled drugs and substances or alcohol while on Library property.

——
CALGARY, AB:

Some behaviours are unacceptable and may result the loss of Library privileges including:

•Using intoxicating substances

——
EDMONTON, AB

Disruptive and/or inappropriate conduct by an individual(s) includes, but is not limited to:

•Sleeping
•Use of alcohol and drugs includes possession and being under the influence.

——
LONDON, ON

Behaviour and activities which are not permitted include:

•Consuming, selling or using alcohol or illegal drugs on library property
•Visible intoxication by alcohol or drugs

——
OTTAWA, ON

Certain behaviours are not acceptable when using the Library or when on Library property, including:

•Intoxication or using any intoxicating substances.
•Sleeping for prolonged periods of time.

——
WINNIPEG, MB

Examples of behaviour that is NOT allowed include:

•Intoxication or substance abuse

——
REGINA, SK

•Customers shall not traffic, consume, or be under the obvious influence of alcohol, drugs, or other substances, while on library property.

•Sleeping is not permitted in the library.

——
NEW BRUNSWICK

The following conduct, exhibited by any patron, will not be tolerated in a library:

•possession/use/selling of illegal or dangerous substances or objects (examples include the use of illegal drugs and alcohol, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of explosives);

——
PEI

Conduct that is illegal, disruptive, unsafe, and/or inappropriate that prevents the enjoyment of the Library by others, or interferes with Library operations, is not permitted. This list includes, but is not limited to:

• Sleeping
•The sale, consumption or visible intoxication of alcohol and/or drugs

08/30/2024

“Multiple times per week, he (Hansen) responds to overdoses in library bathrooms — administering naloxone and calling an ambulance.”

“I can come in and curl up in one of the chairs if I haven’t slept all night and crash for a few hours and know that I’m safe.”

Our public libraries should not serve as makeshift homeless shelters or safe injection sites. The unhoused should be welcomed to use the library for its intended purpose only.

No one wants to take their children or grandchildren to our beautiful library on Spring Garden and find people using chairs as beds, or discover addicts overdosing in the bathrooms.

The premise of this article should be “we need to make libraries safe and attractive for the public who will fund these higher wage asks”, not “how fast can we get addicts and the homeless back into the library so they can sleep and shoot-up drugs more safely”.

Article link can be found at:

https://x.com/friendsofhfx/status/1829507786398474348?s=46&t=qLWoNMbwybPmUwgIQcN47w

05/13/2024

There was an article in the Chronicle Herald today: “Firefighters douse blazes at two homeless encampments in HRM.”

We need new designated, serviced encampment sites ASAP. The longer HRM takes to deal with this issue, the more danger they put HRM residents in. The wild fires in Tantallon last summer destroyed or damaged 200 properties and caused the evacuation of 16,000 residents. The fires caused $165 million in insured damages, and required $8.7 million in provincial assistance. People who lost everything are still suffering the financial and emotional toll of last year’s fire.

The smoke from the fires in Tantallon, and then Barrington Lake, also impacted tourism throughout the city, with trip cancellations causing 10s of thousand of dollars in losses to hospitality businesses in the downtown area.

The city is actively looking the other way, as a matter of policy, while encampments are being setup illegally in municipal and provincial lands. Since the city knows these encampments are a frequent source of fires, their decision to forgo bylaw enforcement is negligent by definition.

Sackville residents reported a growing encampment in the trails of Sackville Lakes (a provincial park). The city is simply noting this is a provincial park, so not their problem. In fact, the lack of an encampment management strategy and newly designated sites is what’s driving the tents into the woods. When the next wildfire starts, it wouldn’t matter that the park is provincial. The homes that will burn and the residents and businesses who will be impacted are all on municipal lands.

Please contact your municipal councillor today and ask for an encampment management plan NOW, not six months from now. Ask for new designated sites by next month, not after the summer/fire season has ended and the damage is done.

(And in case it needs repeating, any new encampment sites should not be placed in sensitive commercial or residential zones).

05/10/2024

Parking in Downtown Halifax remains the number 1 barrier to potential downtown visitors.

Findings from a recent Narrative Research survey show that, as with previous years, parking remains the primary concern of the majority of potential visitors to downtown Halifax (see attached table). This is followed closely by traffic congestion, which is exacerbated by construction activities, particularly the Cogswell Interchange project.

https://narrativeresearch.ca/6359-2/

Concerns about public transit are not a prominent barrier, ranking a distant fifth with only 18% of respondents.

Each year, various surveys are conducted by multiple downtown organizations. They consistently show the same result: parking is the top concern in downtown Halifax. Yet, every year, this feedback from actual residents of HRM is dismissed by city officials, who address this obvious and recurring pain by removing even more street parking and hiking up parking fees and fines.

The city justifies this dissonance, between new parking policies that make parking more difficult and expensive vs. the lived experience of downtown visitors, by pointing out under-utilized parking spaces in impractical parkades located a 10 to 20 minute walk away from where the majority of visitors want to go during peak hours. Parking scarcity is deemed an “imaginary problem” and those who experience it are labelled as lazy drivers.

Parking far from destination and walking is considered a normal expectation from a visitor of downtown Halifax, yet the same logic does not apply to visitors of business parks. They are both the same HRM residents, motivated by the same preferences, family schedules, and various daily urgencies. No one asks or expects a visitor to Bayer’s Lake or Dartmouth Crossing to park 10 minutes away from Walmart’s door and walk to the store.

They also note that street parking usage is in decline, yet fail to see the link between this decline and recently approved increases to the cost of parking fees and fines, which are pushing more people away from downtown Halifax.

Furthermore, the continued attrition of street parking spaces leads to more parking pain, which leads to fewer people visiting downtown, which leads to more attrition. Like a snake eating its own tail, this ouroboros is bad for downtown Halifax.

The city can’t magically create hundreds of new street parking spots, but they can make it less costly to park and freeze further planned reductions to street parking in the downtown core.

The current penalty in downtown Halifax for an expired/unpaid parking meter is $45. The penalty for a meter violation in downtown Toronto is $30. Vancouver? $25.

Meanwhile, patrons of shops on Saint-Laurent in downtown Montreal pay $2.25 per hour in metered parking during peak times, while patrons of Spring Garden shops pay $3.75.

We call on the city of Halifax to heed the results of this survey, and the many surveys before it. Parking scarcity and cost is a real (not perceived) barrier to those who wish to visit downtown Halifax.

05/09/2024

A rare (landlord-friendly) investigative report by CBC showing the issues some landlords struggle with when they provide housing to homeless individuals with acute addiction or mental health issues, but who don’t receive the promised support from the agencies that sponsor their accommodations.

Not every agency fails in providing appropriate supports, but this report shows that when they do, the landlord ends up with little sympathy or support from the same government organizations that initially implored them to take in members of this high risk group.

Unfortunately, some housing agencies in Nova Scotia go a step further and advocate for no-eviction laws, while simultaneously luring landlords into accepting high risk tenants. They promise landlords to provide monitoring and support of these high risk tenants, then lobby government to prohibit the landlord from evicting the tenants when the supports don’t materialize.

The end result of these efforts that make it harder for landlords to manage risky tenants is what we see now: a great hesitancy by the private sector to provide units to clients of these agencies, which further exacerbates the homelessness crisis and leads to more tents on our streets and in our neighbourhoods.

CBC Ottawa visited a number of apartments that have been destroyed by Housing First-supported clients and their guests. Landlords we spoke with say the syste...

05/09/2024

As per the report by the city’s Director of Homelessness during the Halifax city council meeting of Tuesday May 7, the estimate of those anticipated to arrive and be sleeping rough on Halifax streets continues to rise. In a previous news article, the city estimated up to 300 new tents arriving to Halifax streets and parks this summer.

https://cdn.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/city-hall/regional-council/240507rc141.pdf

Despite knowing this inevitability for some time now, the city remains unwilling to act with urgency to designate new encampment sites with appropriate supports before new tent cities proliferate throughout the downtown area and other sensitive neighbourhoods.

The city has also decided to provide no evictions or relocations of any tents that are illegally erected in non-designated encampment sites, leaving residents and businesses to fend for themselves as public spaces and commercial activities are impeded by the city’s deliberate abdication of its law enforcement responsibilities.

University Avenue in downtown is now home to at least 20 tents as per a physical count conducted on May 9, up from the designated limit of 6. The site is only a few feet away from Victoria Park, where the city recently evicted a long standing encampment after acknowledging the mounting concerns of neighbouring residents and businesses. The eviction did little to alleviate concerns since the city allowed even more tents to take hold in the adjacent green space on University Ave.

Encampment management and planning is a municipal responsibility. It is high time for city councillors and HRM officials to give this matter the urgency it deserves. Halifax needs to stop waxing philosophical about how the homeless crisis shouldn’t exist and start dealing with the reality on the ground. Practical and urgent actions are needed now to respond to the needs of tent residents and the community at large.

04/10/2024

The well-anticipated return of tent encampments to the downtown core has begun, while city hall appears rudderless, indifferent, and in no hurry to plan for the summer.

https://x.com/friendsofhfx/status/1778210011199447549?s=46&t=qLWoNMbwybPmUwgIQcN47w

03/27/2024

New tents are starting to set up illegally on undesignated sites in downtown Halifax, which is a natural consequence of the continued lack of a proactive homeless encampment plan by the city.

The photo below was taken today at the politically sensitive site of the former memorial library, where protests against an encampment removal in 2021 turned violent and resulted in confrontations with police.

In a brazen challenge to the city’s authority, these new tents arrive less than a month after the last person charged for the events of 2021 was acquitted by the provincial court, which is ironically located across the street from the former library and these new tents. Of 26 charges laid as a result of the violence that broke during the 2021 memorial library park encampment eviction, 5 were ultimately convicted.

City officials are aware of the anticipated influx of homeless tents arriving to Halifax soon (up to 300 by a recent city estimate). Yet, no urgent planning is currently taking place to address this issue and its potential negative impact on downtown Halifax during the summer, and beyond.

Now is the time for city staff to be scouting new locations to designate for encampments, consulting with communities, and setting up amenities and services in those locations. The city needs to determine how bylaw officers, street navigators, and police will work together in the coming months to direct new tents towards the designated locations.

Without a proactive plan, what happened last year will happen again this year, but at a larger scale with more tents and larger illegal encampments. Encampment designation and management is a municipal responsibility. We need municipal leadership on this issue ASAP.

03/23/2024

Communities and individuals shouldn’t pay out of pocket for extra security. The province and city should fund the extra policing that neighbourhoods and commercial zones require due to government’s shelter and encampment location decisions.

Alternatively, if it’s society that must “pay” extra for somehow causing the housing crisis and failing to provide sufficient mental health, addiction supports, and correctional services, then those payments should come from before-tax income because they relate to services that are supposed to be funded by taxes.

Government should consider making expenses by individuals and businesses, to cover shortfalls in government spending on these issues, tax deductible.

Story link at https://x.com/friendsofhfx/status/1771500668915703846?s=46&t=qLWoNMbwybPmUwgIQcN47w

Stacey Girard

03/19/2024

Listen in to the Todd Veinotte Show on City News Radio 97.5 FM today at 10:45am, where we’ll be discussing our downtown encampments petition and what the city should do in preparation for the expected influx of up to 300 new tents this summer.

The interview is now available on the City News website. You can obtain the link to the segment from our LinkedIn group and scroll to the 37-minute mark for the interview.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/friends-of-downtown-halifax_the-todd-veinotte-show-march-19th-10am-activity-7176190259263676417-4azw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

03/19/2024

This impromptu interview sparked some interesting questions. Should we care about how downtown Halifax looks and its reputation? Our answer is an emphatic “yes”.

Media has generally been neutral or supportive of tent encampments remaining where they are. Lately, however, many outlets are starting to ask more balanced questions. Particularly, what’s the plan going forward?

You can find the interview link on our twitter page at https://x.com/friendsofhfx/status/1770048924625059986?s=46&t=qLWoNMbwybPmUwgIQcN47w.

Link can also be found at our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/friends-of-downtown-halifax_halifax-group-says-nothing-is-positive-activity-7175818360092307457-qDHW?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

03/16/2024

By the city’s own estimates, encampments will be a fact of life in for the foreseeable future. It is the responsibility of the municipality, not the province, to determine where camping can and cannot take place within the city.

If the city doesn’t engage in advanced planning and selection of appropriate sites, then arriving campers will make the choice for them. We will end up right back in the same situation we find ourselves in today, with the city having to conduct mass evictions of adhoc encampments after the fact.

Article link available at https://x.com/friendsofhfx/status/1768988694390747615?s=46&t=qLWoNMbwybPmUwgIQcN47w