Provincial official acknowledges more needs to be done to address homelessness

A provincial official who helps co-ordinate support for people living rough in Nova Scotia has acknowledged that more needs to be done as the number of people experiencing homelessness rises.

There are said to be about 200 people living in tents in Halifax, and more than 1,000 others who are at risk of becoming homeless. 

The situation was highlighted earlier this week when regional council staff suggested turning a section of the Halifax Common into a dedicated tent site.

Some councillors called on the province to do more to help with the homelessness situation.

Joy Knight, the executive director of employment support and income assistance with the Department of Community Services, said the province has been working to address the situation, but more needs to be done.

"We want to make sure we're doing everything we can to help people stay in the housing they may have or to help them attach to permanent housing as quickly as possible," Knight told CBC Radio's Mainstreet Halifax on Wednesday. 

Knight said the province has been funding more housing support worker positions and also employees on outreach teams from Shelter Nova Scotia and Halifax. 

In the last two years, she said, the province has built 400 supportive housing units, with more in the works, and has also recently purchased 147 units.

"That's a very quick transition to housing," Knight said. 

"It works really well because ... we are buying empty buildings and then we convert those immediately to supportive housing."

'They had no other option'

Harold Cook, a street outreach nurse with the North End Community Health Centre's mobile outreach street health team, said the homelessness situation in Halifax has been caused by "decades-long neglect and policy failure." 

"We've known this is coming. We've been sounding alarm bells for years and years and years and it's inaction many years ago that's led us to where we are right now," Cook told CBC Radio's Information Morning Halifax on Wednesday.

Cook said his team has been struggling to keep up with the rising number of people experiencing homelessness. 

"There's nowhere else that they can go and they feel like they're overwhelmingly forgotten and that feels hard when you do this work."

Cook said affordable housing, rent control and a livable minimum wage will be essential in helping the number of people living rough.

Knight said there's no question that the province, and the country, have an affordability crisis which is feeding the housing crisis.

But, she said, the department estimates that more than 750 people would be experiencing homelessness if it wasn't for the work they've been doing.

"The investments we're making, sometimes it's not enough," she said.

"We know more is needed and will continue to make them because we know the investments we're making are driving the right solutions forward."