The deadline for people to move out of a designated homeless encampment in downtown Halifax has arrived and the municipality is working with the few remaining people to help them find a new place to live.

The Halifax Regional Municipality closed the designated encampment on the grassy median on University Avenue in September and gave residents until Nov. 1 to leave.

Max Chauvin, Halifax’s director of housing and homelessness, said Monday that about nine people were still in tents at the site.

“We are working with some of them on an option that will be offered to them in the coming days,” Chauvin said.

“That’s what’s happening now: working one-on-one with these last few people to figure out what might work, where might they go, what option would best meet their needs.”

Around 35 people lived in the camp before it closed. The site initially had a capacity of six tents and had been overcrowded for months.

This notice was placed on about two dozen tents at the encampment in September. (Paul Palmer/CBC)

Chauvin said camp residents have moved into various housing and shelter options in recent weeks.

Municipal and provincial outreach staff work together to connect with people experiencing homelessness and find options that work for each person, he said.

The municipality said the closure was necessary to protect camp residents from heavy snowfall and ice melting equipment that would be operating in the area this winter.

Once everyone leaves University Avenue, Chauvin said, the city will clean the center median to remove all trash, but there are no plans for fencing or further sanitation.

He said he doesn’t know exactly how many people are sleeping rough now, but there are more than 100 worldwide. five remaining designated sites and various undesignated locations around the city.

As of October 30, there were 1,335 people on the named list that tracks people experiencing homelessness in Halifax.

Chauvin said progress is being made to connect people to housing, but more needs to be done as they see more people becoming homeless “every week.”

“The largest group we’re seeing of new homelessness are people who just can’t pay the rent – ​​so it’s an income issue, and it continues.”

Various new provincial options are open or coming online soon for people sleeping rough and those on the nominal list.

The province has opened around sixty pallet shelters as temporary accommodation at HRM so far, with 85 more under construction in Dartmouth and Clayton Park. A Department of Community Services spokesperson said Monday those shelters should be completed by the end of the year.

A supportive housing community of small homes in Lower Sackville is planned open 30 of its 60 units in the coming days.

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