Craig Stewart was living in a tent at Meagher Park, Halifax

REAL DEMOCRACY IS A PROBLEM for city officials in Halifax. It’s messing with their plans to evict homeless people from a “People’s Park” encampment in a city park. Volunteer activists flatly rejected a request from the city to collaborate in city efforts to dismantle the encampment. Democracy made them do it.

The volunteers are part of P.A.D.S. an informal network of community activists for permanent, accessible, dignified, and safer housing. P.A.D.S. helped People’s Park residents set up the park after police forcibly evicted them from other public parks on August 18, 2021.

Grassroots democracy

City officials sent an email to P.A.D.S. on March 15 to ask them to “participate in a process to peacefully close the park and move those in need of shelter to safe housing alternatives.” The officials thought P.A.D.S. had the authority and desire to do that. P.A.D.S. quickly informed them otherwise.

P.A.D.S. told the city they would not assist with dismantling the park, and that the people living in the park were free to decide on their own how to react to city dictates and actions.

P.A.D.S. told the city their network had “no say over the People’s Park and do not determine how those who reside there may react to HRM (Halifax Regional Municipality) operations to close the park down.”

P.A.D.S. also told the city they would continue to do what they could to support unhoused people as they transition into permanent housing.

Fear more evictions by force

P.A.D.S. volunteer Rachelle Sauvé told the Halifax Examiner on March 4 the network was concerned about a repeat of the August 18 park evictions, once the warm weather makes living outside more possible.

“We know that there’s going to be more people who need to tent come spring. They’re already sort of coming out of the woodwork as the weather gets nicer,” Sauvé said.  

“That’s not because people want to live in a place like this. It’s because they’re actually scared of being on their own without public eyes on what’s happening, because police and the HRM have been coming in. And we’re terrified that as soon as spring happens, that will come in greater force without there being places to actually send folks.”

It’s been a long winter at People’s Park; though the numbers fluctuate, there have consistently been at least five to 10 residents sleeping outside. Residents have been lighting fires to keep warm, and volunteers have helped build tent platforms using wood they purchased with donated funds.

There is one tent on site reserved for supplies and food, but volunteers say that’s not enough. Storing everything from clothing to food in one place has been cramped and created unnecessary conflict, they said.

On February 25, volunteers tried to build a makeshift pantry to store the park’s food supply.

Nighttime raid

“We were going to do basically a wooden frame,” said park volunteer Laura Patterson. “The police came and told us to stop. And then at night they came in and they tore it down.”

The next weekend the volunteers tried building a raised wooden platform for a tent to sit on, something Patterson said they’d done countless times. Again, HRP (Halifax Regional Police) showed up at the park, and told them to dismantle the structure.

Patterson said HRP told the volunteers they would be ticketed or arrested if they didn’t stop building. The volunteers stopped again and took the platform apart. HRP left the materials in the park.

A spokesperson for HRM said those living in People’s Park would be offered “alternate accommodations” by the province. This would include placement in the modular units currently under construction in Halifax, which will accommodate 38 residents.

The units were supposed to be ready before the winter. They are now expected to be completed in early May.

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