Halifax is allowing homeless encampments in its parks. Should other cities do the same?

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On Aug. 18, 2021, downtown Halifax made international news when the city erupted in a sprawling protest against the removal of illegal homeless shelters from a park. Compared with other Canadian cities, Halifax’s homeless population has tripled in the past three years. Emergency shelters aren’t doing enough. Building new housing takes time. It takes policy changes – and money. Until that’s in place, is leaving people to camp in parks really the best a city can do? We’re telling the story of park encampments, and how the city’s homelessness problem got so bad.