Halifax housing advocate, Collins Ellison, says his human rights advocacy organization, Housing As A Human Right, stems from a real life situation. “It was really born through a situation that I’d experienced a few years ago where I was in need of housing support and I came to understand that there aren’t really many places of accessibility available within the city.”

In an interview with Community Update, Ellison talked to Matthew Byard about what he feels is a direct correlation between the housing crisis and incarceration rates within Halifax and Nova Scotia. “I think the numbers bare it out very clearly that people experiencing homelessness are over-criminalized, and over-jailed.”

Ellison, who is Black, says there is also intersectionality involved when examining Black populations, who he says are affected the most by the crisis. In Halifax, Ellison says that though Black people make up less than 4 percent of the population, they make up fifteen percent of the city’s homelessness population, as well as 15% of the jail/prison population. “And the number (for homelessness) is even higher for persons of Indigenous descent – about twenty percent,” said Ellison.

Ellison said that the province’s Department of Community Services (DCS) needs to do a better job of making race-based demographics data publicly available. For the Department of Community Services (DCS), which a lot of persons who are experiencing homelessness are dependent on [for] provincial benefits and which directly ties into the income assistance program, for instance – the demographic data for DCS clientele is not made publicly available, and I don’t even believe it’s currently being collected.

He says that although some folks that he has spoken to within the Diversity and Equity division of the DSC have suggested that they started collecting child welfare demographics, that is, clientele involved with child welfare, and also disability support clients, income assistance clients, but those figures aren't publicly available.

“Same with information on public housing. If we are able to look into the demographic data of who’s being served by public housing, I think we can make a connection of where public funds are being invested into, and where the funds should be invested into.”

Ellsion says he’s advocating for what he calls a centralized intake, essentially a twenty four hour emergency service hotline for people experiencing emergency situations with respect to housing. He described a similar model which he says currently exists in Toronto. “For persons who are experiencing homelessness, or who are at risk of experiencing homelessness, or even just persons who are finding themselves in inadequate housing, it is a toll-free line available within the city of Toronto that you can call and they will provide you the most accessible resources, or direct you to the most accessible resources,” he said.

“So rather than what we have currently in this city here of Halifax, where a person experiencing homelessness might have to call several different lines, and that’s even to suggest that they’re able to get through, a lot of these lines won’t be able to direct them as to where they can go for help"....

“if we just invest into housing first, which is a prudent strategy, then I would suggest that we would see the numbers of persons being criminalized and overrepresented in the jail systems, that those numbers would dwindle, as they should.” Though he says he has no official affiliation with any political party, he says that government’s inaction on some of these issues amounts to nothing less than a choice on their part. “The government, as they’re not collecting all of this data, in terms of demographic data for public housing or DSC (Department of Community Services) clientele, when we really see what investments are being made into communities for persons of African descent and Indigenous descent, we’re really seeing, again, that, as I suggested earlier, that these investments to over-criminalize and over-police these communities are a choice, and it’s far too costly.”