If you drive through the city of Halifax and surrounding areas it is a familiar scene when you see people asking for money at most major intersections. Walking throughout the city you can easily spot a homeless person sitting on a stoop asking for money. Unfortunately this is consider normal and not surprising.
Halifax Regional Municipality has a goal to end homelessness and housing poverty in the Halifax region by 2019. The Housing First was developed in 2015 and comprises of Affordable Housing Association of NS, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Nova Scotia Health Authority- Central Zone, Halifax Regional Municipality, Investment Property Owners Association of NS, IWK Health Centre and United Way Halifax. This program, Housing First, is based on the belief that everyone should be supported to remain housed. This approach has proven to be an effective intervention for those struggling with homelessness when implemented in other parts of North America. Phase One of the program was aimed at housing 50-60 of the chronically and repeated homeless people with the fall of 2015 as the first move in date. (Housing and Homeless Partnership). Unfortunately, no follow up data has been located to assess the progress of this program.
Mobile Outreach Street Health plays a large part in assisting the homeless in accessing health care services. It is a collaborative primary health team that consists of full-time nurses, part-time occupational therapists and support from physicians. The team meet people at locations where the homeless person feels safe. They take primary care to them and the team builds trusting relationships with this population it improves health outcomes. The team provides these services at a variety of shelters and organizations or on the streets throughout the Halifax Regional Municipality(Mobile Outreach Street Health).
In 2007 the Nova Scotia provincial government passed the Poverty Reduction Working Group Act. An appointed group is given the responsibility of making recommendations for a poverty reduction strategy. Included in this group is someone representing Aboriginal interests. Unlike other provinces, this group does not require to have a representative who has experienced living in poverty. Some recommendations made by this group were: transportation for the disabled, Pharmacare on income assistance (Nova Scotia Poverty Progress Profile).
In 2009 the Preventing Poverty, Promoting Prosperity Strategy was introduced with provincial and federal investments. Its goal is to break the cycle of poverty by creating opportunities for people to participate in what the province has to offer and enjoy a better quality of living. The four main goals are: enable and reward work, improve supports for those in need, focus on children and finally collaborate and coordinate. 8% of the population of Nova Scotia lives below the Low-Income Cut-Off and the cost of poverty in the province is estimated to be between 1.5-2.2 billion dollars per year. With this plan being in its sixth year it is difficult to assess its effectiveness as there have not been any progress reports since 2013 (Nova Scotia Poverty Progress Profile).
Resources
Housing and Homelessness Partnership. Retrieved from: https://housing.novascotia.ca/newsroom/housing-nova-scotia-supports-fight-against-homelessness
Mobile Outreach Street Health. Retrieved from: http://www.cdha.nshealth.ca/primary-health-care/mobile-outreach-street-health-0
Nova Scotia Poverty Progress Profile, Canada without poverty, 2015.Retrieved from: https://www.cwp-csp.ca/resources/sites/default/files/resources/ProvincePovertyProfiles-NS.pdf
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