Please don’t come to homeless shelters and harass our residents

I am appalled this even needs to be said.

Over the weekend, a man and his two daughters came to the site I work at in Dartmouth stating that he was there to share his beliefs that we are ‘the downfall of society’ and to educate his daughters on the (his) “reality” of homelessness. After connecting with others in the field, I learned he visited another shelter site in Dartmouth and Halifax in addition to some nearby encampments - where, as it was reported to me, he went through the tents and peoples personal belongings. He stated he planned on visiting other locations, but I have not personally confirmed sightings outside of these. He refused to give me (or anyone else who asked) his name, he is a white man who appears to be in his fifties, short cut hair, black painted nails and claimed to be an ex paramedic. His two daughters looked to be in their early teens with shoulder length brown hair.

The people I support are strong, intelligent, and kind. They are ex tradesmen who got injured on the job, they are people fleeing abusive environments, they are seniors who have had no support and lack other safe options. Some are people who have grown out of the foster system and are trying to navigate years of systemic failings in addition to the psychological termoil those failings and the events before them created. And sure, a few have stolen from Superstore or the NSLC. None of them deserve to be consistently treated as though they are less than human. Nor did those children deserve to learn, in such a brutal manner, that’s the kind of man their father is.

I lack the ability, in any respectful or professional manner, to express how frustrating it has been to watch this behaviour normalized and justified by the current discourse surrounding homelessness in politics. Watching it unfold in this individuals actions has been profoundly disturbing. While my site plans to contact non emergency services to assist these types of people leaving should it happen again, the fact it is happening at all means we have to collectively decide to do better. I cannot stress enough that shelters are already severely underfunded and underresourced, we don’t have the capacity to give what little we have convincing so many of you that those you pretend are not, are actually, people. We are trying to focus on supporting them, which becomes incredibly difficult when this sort of situation starts unfolding.