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In Halifax, there are more calls to help those sleeping rough as cold weather settles into the region.
New data shows the number of people without a home in the Halifax Regional Municipality has continued to climb.
The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia has released the statistics, showing 694 people are heading into winter without a place to call home. The count includes the number of people known to be experiencing homelessness.
It’s up by about 200 when compared to a year ago.
The program coordinator with the Navigator Street Outreach Program works with people living outside downtown and says he helps keep track.
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“So that includes people who are couch-surfing or living in a shelter and those kinds of things,” Eric Jonsson says. “That’s a list that keeps growing.
“Whenever they update it every couple of weeks, it’s just more people because there’s not a lot of new affordable housing being built.”
He estimates that in reality, the homeless population in Halifax is much higher.
“That’s definitely an undercount of how many people would be homeless,” Jonsson says. “There would be so many folks who are couch-surfing, for instance, who wouldn’t connect to any services.”
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He says shelters are not the answer and the key to addressing the problem is more affordable places to live.
“If there is no housing or places where people want to live, and can live permanently and securely, we’re just going to see more homeless people,” Jonsson says.
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He says what he hears from the community is that people really want warm and safe places to call home.
Liberal MLA Ben Jessome is calling on all Nova Scotians to help those sleeping rough.
“We need to encourage everybody to try and lend a hand to do what they can in their individual worlds to try and support this group of vulnerable Nova Scotians,” Jessome says.
“We also need to encourage our government to come to the table in a more systemic way.”
Read more: N.S. opening emergency shelter in Lower Sackville with $380K funding
In a statement, the Department of Community Services says homelessness is a complex issue government continues to address with recent funding for new emergency shelters as winter creeps in.
“We know it is getting colder and as the weather turns people are struggling to find shelter,” the statement says. “Our goal is to get people on the path to safe, permanent housing.”
The most recent initiative includes $378,000 in funding to support a new emergency shelter in Lower Sackville at St. Elizabeth Seton Church. It will open on Dec. 5 and provide 20 beds.
