https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wq7l1lnqpo
"Andrew Goodsell has called his small orange tent on a grassy patch in downtown
Halifax home for almost a year.
In late October, on a park bench outside his makeshift dwelling, the
38-year-old described life at the homeless encampment where he lives with about
a dozen or so others as “depressing”.
“I wake up in an area I don’t want to be,” Mr Goodsell said, as a stream of
cars drove by.
“I’d much rather wake up in a spot where I could take a shower and maybe make
myself something to eat. But I’ll still get myself out of bed.”
Mr Goodsell has been without a home on-and-off for a decade.
He once got by with couch surfing or working minimum-wage jobs to pay rent, but
with Halifax’s skyrocketing housing costs, he can no longer afford a place to
live.
His encampment is one of nine sites chosen by the city as a place where people
without housing can lawfully camp outside. The sites were approved this summer
as a temporary, but some argue necessary, solution while indoor shelters are
at-capacity.
The policy has been adopted by at least one other municipality in Canada and is
being considered by others who too are facing a rise in homelessness.
It's in stark contrast to other North American cities where police officers
forcibly remove homeless encampments. These so-called “street sweeps” have been
criticised as violent and ineffective in addressing the housing crisis.
But they have become increasingly popular as homelessness has grown since the
pandemic. California has cleared more than 12,000 encampments since 2021, while
cities like Fresno, California and Grants Pass, Oregon have passed complete
bans on camping in public spaces.
Proponents of banning encampments say that the campsites lead to disorder, and
that funding should go to getting people off the streets.
Among detractors of Halifax's approach are some encampment residents
themselves, who say they want resources spent on affordable housing instead.
“Canada is one of the richest, most beautiful countries around,” Mr Goodsell
said. “We have so much land, so much resource, but we must be one of the
greediest countries out there.”"
Via Kenny Chaffin.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
