'We didn't see this coming,' says shelter operator dropped by province

A non-profit group that abruptly lost its contract with the province to run two shelters in the Halifax area says it was caught off guard and is left speculating about the reasons why.

Eric Jonsson, vice-chair of the board for Out of the Cold Community Association, said he and two others with the group were called to a meeting with provincial staffers Tuesday morning where they were handed a letter that said Out of the Cold would no longer be involved in operating two modular supportive housing sites.

One is on Cogswell Street in Halifax and the other on Church Street in Dartmouth. Together they house more than 60 people.

Jonsson said they were given 30 minutes to leave the property, escorted by security personnel — an experience he described as surreal and insulting.

"It is my job as a board member to kind of oversee the big picture. And we didn't see this coming," Jonsson said in an interview Thursday. 

He said he feels some responsibility for not anticipating the move, although he does not fully understand the province's decision or the way it carried it out.

"I've heard of places being, you know, service providers being replaced, but it's never within like a half-hour notice. You give people a month or two to kind of tidy things up to ensure a smooth transition."

Scott Armstrong, the minister of opportunities and social development, said the contract with Out of the Cold was coming up for renewal in early August, and his department decided to end it early and change service providers because of concerns that he said had been brewing for several years.

The group has run the two shelters since they opened in 2022 in response to surging rates of homelessness, rising rents and a low vacancy rate.

Speaking to reporters Thursday after a cabinet meeting, Armstrong said there were issues with the facilities and concerns about physical safety. 

"We had done numerous meetings, numerous interventions between our staff and the staff of Out of the Cold and those things were not resolved," he said.

He would not go into detail about the problems, and when asked, he denied that illegal substance use by residents had anything to do with the move. Armstrong said he has "more confidence" in Atlantic Community Shelter Society, the service provider that's taking over.

Jonsson said staff from Armstrong's department justified the change to him differently.

"They gave us three reasons, saying that our policies weren't in line with what they wanted them to be, they said that our documentation wasn't up to standard that they expected and that we weren't co-operating with the community as well as we should have," said Jonsson,

He elaborated that "co-operating with the community" involved neighbours, police and the justice system. 

He said the province had raised concerns in the past and Out of the Cold was working with them and making progress. He pointed to the addition of on-site security as a step the non-profit had taken in the province's direction. 

"As far as I've talked to everybody, there's been no outstanding concerns when it comes to things like safety or things like the facilities themselves," Jonsson said.

He said in the absence of a more detailed explanation, he's left to speculate about the province's motivation. In spite of the minister's denial, Jonsson said Out of the Cold's harm reduction approach seems to be part of the equation.

"We at Out of the Cold, we don't expect people to change to get their basic needs met. We believe housing is a human right and we don't want conditions attached to those human rights. We want people to come as they are," he said.

Jonsson said that means they do not require residents to be sober, in a recovery program, or to be medicated if they're dealing with mental illness.

Out of the Cold allowed residents to stay indefinitely. An email sent by a department official to some sector workers this week indicated a change in the expected timeline for transitioning people out of the sites, into more independent, perhaps market housing. 

Armstrong said residents will continue to be able to "move at their own pace."

Jonsson said he hopes the new service providers "understand the complexity" of the residents' needs. But no matter the rules, he said the people living at the two sites are resilient and he expects they will adapt to any new rules, or find somewhere else to live.

He said he's mainly concerned about the Out of the Cold staff — somewhere between 40 and 60 people — who have lost their jobs. He said the province has provided some funding to allow staff to be paid out, and Out of the Cold is in the process of figuring out how far that funding will go.

The province has said staff will have opportunities to reapply for positions at the sites, or for other positions in the sector.