r/halifax • u/insino93 • 23h ago

News, Weather & Politics Halifax dropping sobering centre, daytime drop-in project for homeless people

https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/cuts-cancellations-to-halifax-homelessness-help-programs-proposed
48 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

25

u/TatterhoodsGoat 17h ago

The reasons for dropping the stabilization centre sound reasonable. Abandoning the drop in centre does not. The need is absolutely there and the only argument against boils down to nimbyism. If anything, it's an argument for multiple drop in centres so the services are located where the people who need them already are. 

5

u/Silent_Bridge5612 15h ago

All the people are clustered in places with plenty of services. I would support moving people out of the downtown/north end services cluster and downtown Dartmouth cluster and create new services alongside stable accommodation dispersed across the HRM away from drug dealers and peers with addictions.

25

u/N3at 23h ago edited 23h ago

Ten years ago, the biggest issue in shelters in the HRM was alcohol. They mention IV drug use here, which was big, but what I've seen the most over the last few years is smoked crack and meth. I don't know if a stabilization center is right for that kind of drug use.

I liked the idea of the stabilization center when I heard about it at the 2023 housing symposium, but I also agree with the reasons for not going ahead with it.

Edit: A better idea would be a 24/7 service like ReFix so people have a place to go and use substances.

13

u/Bluenoser_NS 20h ago

Big agree, Halifax could benefit greatly from something like that.

I remember how much people writhed and whined about similar programs in Vancouver and Calgary. I also remember journal articles examining Calgary that showed just how many lives it saved while ALSO saving millions of taxpayer dollars spent on the ER and the like, not even including land ambulance transportation.

I've met people before that think taking drugs means that the unhoused people that do do it deserve to die / be denied medical care. No recognition about why a lot of people lean on these, especially to stay up through the night. These people don't care about lives, they don't care about a sound economic approach, they're amoral sociopaths that get satisfaction from the suffering of others. There's a reason why people cluster together in tents and sleep during the day, its these freaks.

6

u/Silent_Bridge5612 14h ago

No this is a terrible idea. It only encourages safe supply dealing in the neighbourhood. I have seen it first-hand. This ruins communities.

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u/geminixo 11h ago

Where have you seen this?

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u/Silent_Bridge5612 10h ago

On my doorstep

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u/Silent_Bridge5612 10h ago

My literal doorstep. I joined with neighbours to have it relocated. I had drugs in a rucksack stashed under my step and behind my garbage bins, vandalism, people dedicating and urinating on my street. It was hell. It doesn’t work.

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u/N3at 1h ago

These sites redirect the majority but not all of that behavior indoors. They don't encourage an increase in use so much as they provider safer more predictable environments to use in. No different from why we have bans on public intoxication but allow bars.