“We need deeply affordable housing.”

That is what Max Chauvin, HRM’s Director of Housing and Homelessness told community members at the Halifax Forum, Monday night.

Chauvin says in 2018 there were 18 people living rough in HRM, and by February 2023 that was over 200, and since then it has exploded.

Now, more than 1,100 people are currently on the city’s by-name list, looking for housing, with 10-12 new people added every single week and not everybody gives their name.

Once homelessness started to get extreme, he says, they looked for solutions.

The idea was that the province would fund a space and 902 man-up would staff it.

The Multipurpose room at the Forum was chosen as a temporary shelter because they were not able to rent the 14 suitable spaces they found, owned by the province.

Chauvin says the municipality was left with a choice.

“Do we find a space that we own that we can create a shelter, or do we leave people to die outside.”

The shelter had a capacity for 100 people in the winter and had around 70 people stay under its roof, Sunday night.

He says the plan for the shelter is, it will remain open until August 31, as the city looks for a long-term solution for those living rough.

In order to find that long-term solution, Chauvin says they reached out to community members, and they have had a lot of responses with a lot of different ideas which they are looking into.

Affordable housing

Chauvin says the solution to solving homeless is simply, deeply affordable housing with rent geared to the income you make -which is 20-30 per cent below the average rent.

Which is about $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment.

Chauvin says even $1,600/month is not affordable for people of all ages.

‘We moved people and watched people in their 70’s have to move into a tent because they can’t afford it.”

He says the problem will be solved when communities and governments of all levels build housing and turn it over to the non-for-profit organizations to run.

The shelter at the Forum opened in January.