Tiny-home community for homeless people in Halifax area running behind schedule

A tiny-home community for unhoused people in Lower Sackville, N.S., won't be ready to welcome its first residents until at least the fall, says a provincial official.

The pilot project, announced in October to combat growing homelessness, was meant to have 52 self-contained units providing housing for about 62 people. Thirty of the units were supposed to be finished this spring, with residents moving in by summer.

But now, the timeline has been pushed back.

"So work has started and we expect it will take a few months," said Suzanne Ley, executive director of employment supports and income assistance at the Department of Community Services.

"The first residents, we're hoping will move in by fall, and the second group of residents by winter. So, taking a bit of a phased approach."

The Nova Scotia government has said it will spend $9.4 million for initial construction, along with $935,000 per year in operating costs. The municipality is providing the land at no cost and will be in charge of property maintenance.

Ley said The Shaw Group and Dexter Construction have begun site surveying and early construction work at the former tent encampment on Cobequid Road, and the plan has grown to include 60 units to house 70 people.

Pallet shelter locations still largely unclear

When the tiny-home community was announced, the province said it was also spending $7.5 million to buy temporary housing produced by Pallet, a North American shelter provider. The plan was for 200 units to be installed across Nova Scotia, including 100 in the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Pallet shelters are shown in Lower Sackville on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Pallet is a North American company specializing in rapid-response shelter villages. (Kelly Clark/The Canadian Press)

So far, only 19 are up and running at a site next to Beacon House Shelter in Lower Sackville. The province has said the units will have bed frames, mattresses and desks, and be connected to power and water. Bathrooms, laundry and other supports will be provided on-site.

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The province said in January that 30 of the fibreglass shelters will be installed in Sydney, 20 in Kentville, and an undetermined number in north-end Halifax at the Halifax Forum. Later that month, the province walked back the Halifax Forum plan, saying there wasn't enough space.

The interior of one of Pallet's emergency sleeping cabins. (Pallet)

Ley said in a recent interview that some new locations would be announced in the coming weeks, but she couldn't say when the 181 remaining units would be ready.

"I know we have a number kind of in the works now," she said. "Certainly Kentville will be operational by summer. In terms of the others, it's a bit early to say."

'It's very urgent'

In the fall of 2021, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax–Yarmouth began fundraising to build emergency shelters in an effort to address the province's growing housing crisis.

Using a local engineering company, the archdiocese commissioned 25 shelters, which were built in about six weeks and installed on church grounds across the province, equipped with power and climate control.

Dino Raymond has been living in one of the shelters in Halifax for four and a half months. He said it has made a huge difference in his life to be warm and dry and have privacy.

Dino Raymond lives in a shelter run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth. He says the shelter has helped change his life. (David Laughlin/CBC)

Raymond said he wants other unhoused people to have the same opportunity to get back on their feet.

"It's very urgent, like ASAP," said Raymond, whose unit is similar to the Pallet shelters purchased by the province. "The higher powers above and the government need to hear that we really need your support bad."

Opposition leader Zach Churchill agreed with Raymond, saying the project needs to come together faster.

"We are seeing this terrible trend with this government where they make a lot of announcements but don't deliver on these projects," Churchill said in an interview Monday. "We're seeing it now again with these tiny homes. We saw it with the Pallet shelters ... and I'm worried because they spend a lot of money but don't really deliver."

The tiny home community will be located at the site of a former encampment on Cobequid Road. (Pat Callaghan/CBC)

Churchill said the province has "literally run out of housing."

It's a problem that won't be solved even when the tiny-home community is ready for occupancy, said NDP housing critic Suzy Hansen.

"What are we going to do after these are built?" she said. "At the end of the day, we will have tiny homes for folks to transition into. But what is our plan for truly affordable housing for folks in this province?"

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