Halifax councillor looking to de-designate the Cogswell Park encampment

One Halifax councillor is looking to de-designate Cogswell Park as an official encampment location.

The motion from Councillor Virginia Hinch, which will be presented to council on July 8, claims that the site is exceeding occupancy limits and is posing a risk to public safety.

Cogswell Park was one of nine sites the municipality chose to designate as tenting locations last year as the city grapples with an increasing number of unhoused people. The other locations include Bayers Road, Windsor Street Park, BiHi Park, Chain Lake Park, Glebe Street Park, Halifax Common berm and Point Pleasant Park on the peninsula, and Bissett Road Park and the Geary Street green space across the harbour in Dartmouth.

The city has previously said all of the locations were chosen for their proximity to public transit and other services, and their distance from schools, parks, gardens and other culturally sensitive areas.

Councillor Hinch said Cogswell Park soon will not match this original designation criteria.

“With the opening of the new Parkland Campus on Quinpool Road expected in the Fall of 2025, this designated site will fall within 50 meters of an adult care facility and will no longer meet the criteria for a designated encampment site,” the motion reads. “Therefore, staff should examine closing and remediating this site and moving individuals who currently reside there to a new location.”

This is not the first time a Halifax councillor has tried to de-designate encampment locations. In December 2024, Mayor Andy Fillmore proposed a motion that sought to rescind the list of nine designated locations. That motion was narrowly defeated 8-7.

Premier Tim Houston has also expressed his discontent with some of the designated tenting locations.

The latest Point-in-Time Count, undertaken in November 2024, identified a minimum of 1,132 people experiencing homelessness across the municipality.

With files from the Canadian Press and CityNews’ Natasha O’Neill