The Halifax police board has adopted an official policy on how police should handle homeless encampments, but city staff say the remaining designated sites may not be needed much longer.
On Wednesday, the board of police commissioners approved the policing encampments policy that lays out roles and expectations for both Halifax Regional Police and Halifax RCMP.
The move comes four years after a large group of protestors clashed with police at the closure of a homeless site in downtown Halifax.
“It was a bit of a chaotic communication space … certainly not anything with the board,” said Coun. Becky Kent.
“It’s a baseline for us, as a board, to have something significant for the first time.”
The board’s policy said the overall response to homelessness, including maintaining or closing camps, should be led by civilians like street navigators, city staff or health workers. The city has already made this change.
The Halifax Regional Police (HRP) chief should make sure officers are trained to not re-traumatize people in these sites, the policy said, and work closely with service providers helping those who are homeless.
But Halifax police must always respond to alleged criminal activity and carry out investigations as needed to make sure people in and around the camps are safe, the policy said.
Chief Don MacLean told the board he’s heard the comment that police don’t do enough to address violence or safety issues at designated encampments. But he said the challenge is when neighbours call police, they expect the officer to “somehow remove the people from where they are.”
“People can be charged, people can be [dealt] a lot of things — but at the end of the day, it’s not going to make them disappear from where they’re at,” MacLean said.
The chief must now establish a policy outlining HRP’s response to encampments that aligns with the principles in the board’s policy.
Municipal staff also gave an update to the board Wednesday on the current homeless situation and upcoming plans.
Rachel Boehm, Halifax’s new executive director of community safety, said designated encampments are not healthy for anyone living in or around them and were never a long-term solution.
Although deeply affordable housing is still badly needed, Boehm said new shelters and temporary housing from the province are making a difference and getting people inside. Boehm said people have a better chance of getting the support they need — and eventually housing — when they are not sleeping rough.
“The designated encampments [were] an emergency response to a housing crisis. We’re in a different place,” Boehm said.
“I feel really hopeful that Halifax is going to turn a corner.”
Boehm said staff are now creating a new multi-year homeless framework for Halifax that focuses on reducing the number of people sleeping rough and “reducing the number of encampments over time, with a time frame that’s reasonable.”
“And having our parks return to parks and community spaces for all its citizens, and also seeing a reduction in the violence and things that are happening in neighbourhoods because people are living in such difficult circumstances,” Boehm said.
She said the framework will require working closely with the province and other service providers, and staff will create targets and a report card to make sure progress is being made to help people find a home.
The municipality has three designated homeless encampments in the urban cores of Halifax and Dartmouth. A fourth recently closed, and people living there have until Sept. 21 to leave.
Boehm said the work on the plan will continue this fall, and council will hear more about it soon.
The city said there were fewer than 100 people sleeping rough in Halifax as of the end of August.
The by-name list tracking people dealing with homelessness in Halifax showed 997 people or families in need of housing as of Wednesday.
