Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax by Jim Silver
February 2008 ISBN: 978-0-88627-587-7
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives–Manitoba Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives–Nova Scotia Acknowledgements
I am very pleased to acknowledge the Levy, Maureen MacDonald, Amy support of numerous people who live MacKay, Joan Mendes, Peter Mortimer, and work in North End Halifax, in and Tyler Morton, Donna Nelligan, Paul around Uniacke Square. These people O’Hara, Dawn Sloane, Wade Smith and agreed to meet with me, and to talk, Garfield Symonds. sometimes at length and often passion- Thanks also to my Research Assistant, ately, about Uniacke Square and North Matt Rojers. End Halifax, and each of them treated me with a kindness and generosity that is I am also happy to acknowledge the gen- deeply appreciated. They are: Irvine erous financial support, via a Standard Carvery, John Fleming, Melissa Grant, Research Grant, of the Social Science and Darcy Harvey, Gregg Lambert, Claudie Humanities Research Council of Canada.
About the Author
Jim Silver is Chair of the Politics Depart- riginal Communities (Halifax: Fernwood ment and Co-Director of the Urban and Publishing, 2006), and co-editor, with Inner-City Studies program at the Uni- John Loxley and Kathleen Sexsmith, of versity of Winnipeg. He is the author of Doing Community Economic Development In Their Own Voices: Building Urban Abo- (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2007).
This report is available free of charge from the CCPA website at http://www.policyalternatives.ca. Printed copies may be ordered through the Manitoba Office for a $10 fee. i Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax Table of Contents
2 Introduction 3 The Case of Halifax 4 The Shortage of Low-Income Rental Housing 5 The Destruction of Public Housing 8 Stigmatization, Privatization and Gentrification: HOPE VI 10 The North End of Halifax and Uniacke Square 11 The Post-War Decline of Gottingen Street and Area 12 Table One 13 The Bulldozers of Urban Renewal 13 Table Two 15 Gentrification 16 “The Condos Are Coming”: Gentrification in North End Halifax 16 a. qualitative indicators 17 b. quantitative indicators 18 North End Halifax As a Mixed-Income Neighbourhood 18 Table 3 19 Table 4 20 “This is a Modern-Day Africville”: The Vulnerability of Uniacke Square 25 An Alternative Way Forward For Uniacke Square 32 References 37 Personal Interviews
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 1 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax
Introduction
Large 1960s-style inner-city public hous- tradictory space: stigmatized by many ing projects are being torn down all Haligonians as a place of drugs, vice and across North America, replaced at least violence; yet with a strong sense of com- in part by market housing that is beyond munity and enough strengths that, were the financial reach of the former tenants. a deliberate and strategic program of pub- Thousands of low-income public hous- lic investment in community-led revitali- ing rental units are disappearing; tens of zation to be undertaken, it could become thousands of low-income tenants are a model for healthy and vibrant, albeit being displaced. In most cases this return low-income, communities. to the bulldozing of the ‘urban renewal’ era of the 1960s is part of the “war of In this paper I examine the case of places” (HRM April 2004) engaged in by Uniacke Square, in the context of the cities in competition with each other for forces currently shaping downtown Hali- capital that is mobile, and for skilled fax and other urban centres, the experi- workers who seek a particular style of ence of inner-city public housing projects urban life. Cities are reconfiguring them- elsewhere in North America, and the con- selves to meet these kinds of competitive ditions leading to gentrification in neigh- demands, and in many North American bourhoods close to central business dis- cities the result is the gentrification of tricts. I argue that these forces are at work downtown and neighbouring spaces in North End Halifax, and are placing that has placed public housing projects Uniacke Square and its tenants at risk. and their tenants at risk. And I consider the alternative, which is public investment in the form of neigh- Uniacke Square in North End Halifax is bourhood revitalization that is built on one such case. Located immediately north the strengths of, and undertaken with of the Halifax central business district and in the interests of, low-income ten- and three short blocks from the Halifax ants. This community-led, community- harbour, Uniacke Square is home to the building approach, I argue, is preferable kind of spatially concentrated racialized for low-income people in an era when af- poverty that has become common in ur- fordable, good quality, low-income rental ban areas in the past 30 years. It is a con- housing is in perilously short supply.
2 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax The Case of Halifax
Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia, and late twentieth and early twenty-first cen- effectively the economic and cultural cen- turies, identify Halifax’s relatively high tre of Atlantic Canada. Built around Hali- ranking in the “talent index” and “bo- fax harbour, the second largest natural hemian index” as strengths to build ice-free port in the world, the city is home upon. Halifax ranks fourteenth in North to two world-class container terminals, America in the “talent index”, which is a major multi-modal transport hub measures the proportion of the popula- that is the gateway to Canada for the tion over the age of 18 years who hold a movement of freight from the east, and university degree. Halifax ranks first in is the headquarters of the east coast Navy this index among similarly sized cities in and Coast Guard. Halifax Regional Mu- Canada, and second (after Ottawa) nicipality (HRM) is home to six univer- among cities of any size in Canada. On sities and the largest and most sophisti- the “bohemian index”, which measures cated health facilities in the region, boasts the proportion of the population em- an attractive downtown harbour-front ployed in artistic and creative occupa- with a well-maintained historic district, tions, Halifax ranks seventh in North offers a natural environment in its sur- America and second in Canada (after Vic- rounding areas that is exceptionally at- toria) among similarly sized cities (HRM tractive, and is a major tourist centre April 2004: 13-14). These characteristics, (HRM 2006: 83). City leaders are now the promotion of which is based on the seeking to position Halifax for the world work of Richard Florida (2002), are seen of the twenty-first century, hoping to as strengths that Halifax should build build on the strengths of the city in or- upon to create a vibrant downtown and der to attract mobile businesses and sophisticated urban culture attractive to skilled, upper-income people with pur- mobile, upper-income individuals and chasing power and a desire for a sophis- knowledge-based companies. ticated urban lifestyle. Other cities are doing the same (see Hackworth 2007). In This way of thinking about Halifax and the case of Halifax this involves, among its future is consistent with what else- other measures, a concentrated effort to where has been called the “neoliberal promote “central city revitalization” and city” (Hackworth 2007). In the neoliberal “capital city image enhancement and pro- city, downtowns and urban cores once motion”, and to “...provide a high qual- abandoned as part of the mid-century ity living environment, a wide range of process of suburbanization are now be- civic and cultural amenities and a vibrant ing revitalized and reconfigured, with the arts and entertainment scene” in order result that “...the inner city of many large to “...attract well-educated individuals cities is now dominated by tony neigh- who are willing to pay...” for such a life bourhoods, commercial mega-projects, style (HRM April 2004: 13). Those devel- luxury condominiums, and expensive oping this kind of urban strategy, in- boutique retail shops” (Hackworth 2007: tended to position Halifax favourably in 99). Integral to this neoliberal spatial the “war of places” (HRM April 2004: 2) reconfiguration of twenty-first century being fought between global cities in the urban centres is the process of gentri-
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 3 fication, which takes place at least in part The Shortage of Low-Income to meet the needs of the kinds of people Rental Housing that Halifax and most other urban cen- Rental housing has been in declining sup- tres now seek to attract, but which places ply all across Canada for years. This has at risk such structural legacies of mid- been especially the case for low-income twentieth century Keynes-ianism as in- renters—those most in need of affordable ner-city public housing projects. housing. Kent (2002: 9) has recently called Hackworth (2007: 149) describes this affordable housing “...the greatest of ur- process as follows: ban deficiencies”. Private developers have “...gentrification is the knife-edge not invested in low-income rental units neighbourhood-based manifestation for many years because the profits that of neoliberalism. Not only has it can be earned are too low (Carter and created a profit opportunity for real Polevychk 2004: 7). For example, rental estate capital, but it has also created housing was 27 percent of all new hous- a high-profile ideological opportu- ing constructed in Ontario from 1989 to nity to replace physically Keynesian 1993; it was 2 percent of new housing managerialist landscapes of old— built in Ontario in 1998 (Layton 2000: represented by public housing, 79). “While construction began on more public space, and so on—with the than 30,000 rental units every year dur- entrepreneurial privatized landscapes ing the 1970s in Ontario, this figure had of the present”. fallen to approximately 2,000 by the end of the 1990s” (Le Goff 2002: 4). The re- Crump (2002: 582) makes a similar ar- sult has been “a dramatic decline in the gument: “the demolition of public hous- availability of low rent units” across the ing erases from the landscape the highly country (Pomeroy 2004: 7). And since stigmatized structures of public hous- 1993 the federal government has largely ing, aiding in the reimaging of the city as abandoned the production of social hous- a safe zone for commerce, entertainment ing, with the result that there are now and culture”. long waiting lists in most cities for ac- cess to social housing (CCPA-Mb This is precisely the risk faced by the low- 2005:15; Carter 2000: 5 and 11; income tenants of Uniacke Square, lo- Hulchanski 2002: 8). Canada now has cated, as they are, immediately contigu- “...the smallest social housing sector of ous to a downtown Halifax that city lead- any major Western nation...” other than ers and planners seek to revitalize in ways the USA (Hulchanski 2002: iv; consistent with the privatizing thrust of Hulchanski and Shapcott 2004: 6). The neoliberalism. All that is public is at risk result is that in Canada, the “ultimate of being made private. The consequences housing problem” is the shortage of low- are likely to be similar to what has hap- income rental housing (Hulchanski 2002: pened in other urban centres: a process 17). As a recent study by the Toronto of gentrification that serves the interests Dominion Bank (Drummond, Burleton of the more well-to-do at the expense of and Manning 2003: ii) noted: “...the over- those who are poor. This is a particularly all supply of rental housing in Canada has dangerous trend at a time when low-in- stagnated in recent years, and has actu- come rental housing is everywhere in ally been receding at the lower end of the short supply. rent range—the segment of the market
4 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax where lower-income individuals with that : “...gentrification pressures caused affordability problems are concentrated”. much of the decline in affordable rental housing supply in many Canadian A shortage of low-income rental hous- CMAs”. Layton (2000: 140 and 147) adds ing plagues Halifax as well. This has been that: “Canada’s urban centres ... lost a the case for decades (Stephenson 1957: 36 minimum of 13,000 units of rental hous- and 46). In 2001, 44 percent of renters in ing between 1995 and 1999 owing to the Halifax Regional Municipality paid demolition of often perfectly sound hous- 30 percent of more of their income on ing units, or its conversion to condo- shelter, “...which is one of the highest in minium ownership out of the range of the country” (HRM March 2004: iv), and those in need of affordable housing”. The the proportion of Nova Scotian house- result is that “...as gentrification moves holds paying more than 50 percent of through communities, there is a net re- their income on housing is the highest duction of low-cost housing”. Le Goff in the country (Fairless 2004). The in- (2002: 10) concurs: “In the past few years come of renters in the HRM is less than many affordable rental units have been half the income of home-owners, the converted into condominiums or reno- number of new rental units being built vated into high-end housing”. When this is low and does not meet the demand, happens in areas like North End Hali- and the demand is growing as more peo- fax, it removes what Ley (1996: 26) refers ple choose to live close to downtown to as “...the historic inner city role of pro- Halifax (HRM March 2004:10-12). The viding affordable housing”, thus making provincial government of Nova Scotia worse what is already the “ultimate hous- has not implemented policies or programs ing problem”. to adequately address this problem, and the withdrawal of the federal government from provision of social housing in 1993 The Destruction has meant that “since the mid-1990s, of Public Housing there has been virtually no production of new housing in HRM [there has been It is in the context of this shortage of low- some, but it has been minimal J.S.] due income rental housing, this “ultimate to a lack of funds from senior levels of housing problem”, that tens of thou- government”, and worse, “funds are not sands of units of subsidized public hous- available to maintain existing affordable ing are being destroyed across North housing units”, putting further pressure America, making a bad situation for low- on the supply of low-income rental units income people still worse. The destruc- (HRM March 2004: 40). Thus, for exam- tion of public housing is best understood ple, there were 961 applicants on the as the other side of the coin that involves waiting list for the 184 units at Uniacke “central city revitalization” and “capital Square in North End Halifax as of No- city image enhancement” (HRM April vember 30, 2007 (Fleming, personal com- 2004: 13). Along with this creative proc- munication, January 10, 2008). ess goes the destructive process of remov- ing the public housing that does not fit Gentrification is a major factor in this with the “image enhancement” sought process. The authors of the Toronto-Do- by the competitive twenty-first century minion Bank study (Drummond, city, nor with the needs of the mobile, Burleton and Manning 2003: 11) argue upper-income individuals for whose so-
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 5 phisticated consumption tastes urban These public housing projects soon be- downtowns are being revitalized and came home to the poorest of the poor, reconfigured. For those who see urban and in the USA, to disproportionate num- downtowns in this way, public housing bers of African-Americans. It has been ar- is considered a relic of a now outmoded gued that public housing became a means past. Such an interpretation is reinforced of confining African-Americans to inner by the negative stereotyping and stigma- cities, while Whites fled to the suburbs, tization to which inner-city public hous- thus “preserving racial ghettoes” and ing projects and their residents are con- spatial segregation (Hirsch 1983). The stantly subjected. In this “war of spaces”, same, as will be seen, could be said to be Uniacke Square and its tenants are at the case for Uniacke Square. In Chicago, risk. This is the case for public housing of the fifty-one public housing projects throughout North America. approved between 1955 and 1966, 49 were in Black-dominated inner-city neigh- Large inner-city public housing projects bourhoods (Biles 2000: 150). White sub- in the USA and Canada are the prod- urban neighbourhoods fought to keep ucts of the urban renewal era of the African-Americans out (Fuerst 2003; Biles 1950s and 1960s. Low-income inner-city 2000; Hirsch 1983), confining them housing, usually labeled “slum hous- largely to inner-city neighbourhoods. ing”, was bulldozed in the name of The result was the spatial concentration “progress”. Knock down “slums” and in inner-city neighbourhoods of build new housing and the problems racialized poverty. Chicago’s Robert associated with poverty would be Taylor Homes originally housed some solved, it was then believed. In many 27,000 people “of whom approximately cases, however, residents would have 20,000 were children, all were poor, and been better served if neighbourhoods almost all were Black” (Biles 2000:149). had been retained and communities kept By 1998, of the 11,000 tenants then in intact by means of housing renovation. Robert Taylor Homes, 99 percent were In their place there arose concentrated Black, 96 percent were unemployed, 84 blocks of public housing, often laid out percent earned less than $10,000 annu- in a distinctive design with the street ally, and 70 percent were under the age grid system removed and replaced by of 21 years (Biles 2000: 265). This is spa- large open spaces. In bigger cities pub- tially concentrated racialized poverty. lic housing projects took the form of row upon row of towering, multi-story Nevertheless, in the early years these blocks in the midst of wide-open spaces, public housing projects worked well. a design inspired by Swiss modernist People were happy with their new and architect Le Corbusier (Hall 1988). In St. improved accommodation. Most public Louis, for example, the Pruitt-Igoe housing projects placed a cap on the pro- project consisted of thirty-three eleven- portion of tenants on social assistance, story buildings; in Chicago, Robert often at 25 percent, thus creating mixed- Taylor Homes, the world’s largest pub- income communities in which most resi- lic housing project, comprised “a two dents, although low-income, were work- mile stretch of twenty-eight sixteen- ing. In a study based on interviews with story buildings containing over 4,300 seventy-nine people who lived or worked units, completed in 1963”(von Hoffman in Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) 1996: 433). projects in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s,
6 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax Fuerst (2003: 2) shows that CHA projects: the numbers of poor people in inner cit- ies, and reduced the opportunities avail- “Helped thousands of Chicagoans able to them. Inner cities throughout escape slum housing conditions and North America suffered from the process enter a world that offered first-rate of suburbanization, which resulted in housing, a close-knit community, and the ‘hollowing out’ of the inner city— the positive pride that comes from a those most able to move did so; busi- shared experience. In short, public nesses and social infrastructure fol- housing and the CHA once worked— lowed—leaving behind those least finan- spectacularly well”. cially able to move. This was followed by the dramatic economic restructuring of However, by the mid-late 1960s most the past 30 years and more, which in- large inner-city public housing projects cluded a de-industrialization which re- were acquiring a distinctly negative repu- moved from inner cities the very kinds tation, and were increasingly seen as be- of decently paid jobs that would other- ing home not only to concentrations of wise have enabled many of those now racialized poverty, but also to drug-deal- among the poor to pull themselves out ing, gangs and violence. What caused of poverty. this transformation?
The problems that came to characterize The result was that most large public inner-city public housing projects were housing projects were located in inner- not caused by public housing as such. city neighbourhoods that were suffering They were caused by changes in public the effects of post-war suburbanization policy, and by broad socio-economic and de-industrialization. Those in the forces. First, public housing gradually worst circumstances—and particularly became home to the poorest of the poor, women with children—were directed to whose need for good quality, low-rental public housing, which thus become housing was least likely to be met by the “housing of last resort”, the new, late- private for-profit housing market. With twentieth century poorhouses. Querica what were likely the best of intentions, and Galster (1997: 538) refer to the “dra- the very poor were admitted in ever-larger matic spatial transformation of America’s numbers, so that public housing increas- urban landscape during the last four dec- ingly became “housing of last resort”. ades”, which “left many public housing This was worsened by amendments to tenants in inner city areas with few op- the US Housing Act in 1969, 1970 and portunities for socio-economic advance- 1971, that required that families whose ment. Moreover, public housing devel- incomes rose above a certain level had to opments found themselves in neigh- leave public housing projects, which bourhoods with ever greater concentra- therefore became housing only for the tions of poverty and the attendant so- poor. It is the resulting spatial concen- cial consequences”. tration of poverty that is the problem, not public housing as such. This was High proportions of those left in the ‘hol- made worse by the fact that broad, socio- lowed out’ American inner cities were, economic forces, especially suburbaniza- and are, African-Americans. They, in par- tion and de-industrialization, increased ticular, have been adversely affected by
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 7 these broader socio-economic changes. Stigmatization, Privatization Public housing, it is argued by some, and Gentrification: HOPE VI served to confine them, in their poverty, The means for achieving this objective in to the inner city, enabling the mainte- the USA was HOPE VI—Home Owner- nance of late-twentieth century urban, ship for People Everywhere—launched in de facto segregation: 1993. HOPE VI arose from the work of the Congress of the National Commis- “The loss of manufacturing jobs sion on Severely Distressed Public Hous- devastated African-American commu- ing, established in 1989. The Commission nities and as social problems associ- produced a National Action Plan calling ated with joblessness spread, the for a ten-year strategy “to eliminate se- spatial isolation of large public verely distressed public housing by 2000” housing projects... acted as a spatial (Turbov and Piper 2005: 7). containment polity” (Crump 2003: 181; see also Venkatesh 2000: x; This objective was premised on the belief Popkin et al 2004). that the concentration of poverty in pub- lic housing projects was the problem, the A stigma increasingly became attached to solution for which was knocking down public housing. In many peoples’ minds parts of large public housing projects and public housing came to be seen as the replacing them with mixed-income mar- cause of the problems. Often the argument ket housing. The result has been “a mas- had to do with design. The distinctive sive demolition and reconstruction ef- design of inner-city public housing fort” (Querica and Galster 1997: 549). The projects, with the absence of through hope has been to create new, healthy, streets and narrow walkways between mixed-income neighbourhoods; many buildings and wide-open spaces used by low-income people have been displaced drug dealers, came to be seen to be the in the process. problem. In the early 1970s Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis was dynamited, on the Many claims have been made about the grounds that it and others like it were success of HOPE VI. For example, “human disaster areas” (von Hoffman Henry Cisneros, former US Housing 1996: 436, referring to Rainwater 1970). and Urban Development (HUD) direc- In the late 1970s and especially 1980s pub- tor and key promoter of HOPE VI in lic expenditure on maintenance and re- the 1990s said: “We are replacing the pair of public housing projects was re- worst of the housing units ... that have, duced, the physical condition of existing for too long, been the settings for our units deteriorated, security worsened, children’s urban nightmares.... Instead and a bad situation became ever worse. of mammoth apartment buildings, The stigma long attached to public hous- small-scale townhouse-style housing is ing projects deepened, adding to the de- being constructed” (quoted in spair of many of those who lived there, Hackworth 2005: 45). and the growing stigmatization became a convenient cover for those determined But what is really happening is the mass to privatize and gentrify public housing. demolition of low-income rental units. Hackworth (2005: 35) argues that only about half of the new units being con-
8 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax structed will be available to and afford- Crump (2003: 185) observes further that: able by “...the residents whose homes were originally demolished”. In Chicago, “As the widespread demolition of for example: “Over 8,200 units have been inner city public housing projects or are scheduled to be demolished, but proceeds throughout the United only 2,821 public rentals are planned for States, the built environment of the replacement as part of the six HOPE VI inner city is being remade. Public grants the city received between 1994 and housing is rapidly being replaced by 2000” (Hackworth 2007: 58). Vale (2002: new urbanist townhouses, intended 1) adds that: to re-engineer the class and racial structure of the city by bringing “On the basis of HUD data, research- middle class European-Americans ers estimate that 11,000 units of back to the inner city”. public housing are being demolished each year, most of these previously This is precisely the risk faced by Uniacke occupied by residents earning less Square and its low-income residents. And than 30 percent of the area’s median the danger signs come not only from the income. When replacing these apart- US experience. They can also be discerned ments with ‘mixed-income commu- in the historical experience of North End nities’, housing authorities are Halifax in the 1960s. There is the risk that mixing in only about 4000 public the wrongs committed and the damage housing units—and most of these done then, in the name of “urban re- are targeted to households with newal” and purportedly in the interests higher incomes than those of cur- of low-income North End residents, are rent housing residents”. about to occur again.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 9 The North End of Halifax and Uniacke Square
Although in the nineteenth century some decades of use and neglect, deterio- of the Halifax elite located their mansions rated even more”. on Brunswick Street overlooking the harbour, for the most part the historic From this North End neighbourhood North End was home to the working with its deteriorated housing stock, many class that laboured in the area’s naval thousands of residents would relocate to dockyards and railway and associated in- the suburbs in the years following the dustries. As Erickson (2004: xiii) has ob- Second World War, in a process of served: “While most industrial capitalists suburbanization replicated throughout lived in the South End, the vast major- North America (Jackson 1985). ity of industrial workers lived in the Also relocating, but in their case forcibly North End” in relatively modest hous- and not to the suburbs, were the 400 Af- ing. Gottingen Street became the heart rican-Nova Scotian residents of Africville, of the North End, the “People’s Street”, located at the northernmost tip of the bustling with shops and activity of a wide North End, beyond the paved roads. Set- variety of kinds. The 1917 Halifax Explo- tled by people of African descent since at sion leveled much of the northerly por- least the early nineteenth century, tion of the North End, and out of its de- Africville could be interpreted through struction Thomas Adams, inspired by the two distinctly different lenses. The most “garden city” approach to town plan- commonly used lens saw Africville as a ning, built the Hydrostone district with slum, comprised of crumbling shacks its modest and attractive row houses and without running water and modern sew- boulevards, located to the west of age facilities, and home to various forms Needham Hill which is where the monu- of sin and debauchery. The other lens ment to the Explosion now stands. The saw Africville, at least until the last dec- southerly part of the North End, and ades of its existance, as a tightly-knit Africville at the northern tip of the pe- community centred on the Seaview Afri- ninsula overlooking the Bedford Basin, can United Baptist Church, located in a were largely spared. near-rural setting where residents fished Two decades later the Second World War in and enjoyed the magnificent view of created an economic boom—as times of the Bedford Basin, and lived largely in- war have always done in this naval city— dependent lives. Whatever the lens, to experienced in the working class North many it was where they wanted to live; End in the form of a dramatically in- it was home. creased demand for housing. As Erickson (2004: xvii) describes it: In the 1960s every resident of Africville was removed, some forcibly and all “To house the necessary workforce, against their wishes. The City wanted the owners of nearby North End dwell- land on which they resided, and justi- ings carved them up into flats, apart- fied their forced relocation by reference ments and rooms. As a result, the to that which was negative about housing stock, already frayed from Africville.
10 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax The City had for decades abused the resi- that the Uniacke Square to which many dents of Africville. In the nineteenth cen- were relocated now faces the very real tury they ran rail lines through the com- possibility, as will be argued below, of munity, in some cases mere feet from ex- suffering a similar fate, even though, as isting homes. They located a “night soil” was the case in Africville, a better alter- depository and the Rockhead Prison near native is possible. the community, and later added the In- fectious Diseases Hospital, oil storage The Post-War Decline of tanks and a slaughterhouse. In the 1950s Gottingen Street and Area an open refuse dump was located beside Africville, approximately 350 feet from the By the time Uniacke Square was built— western-most homes. Yet by the 1960s the in 1966, in the near North End between community still did not have running Gottingen and Brunswick Streets, in part water, nor sewers, nor paved roads. “Im- to house the Africville relocatees— ages of badly peeling paint, outhouses, Gottingen Street and the surrounding heaps of scrap metal and abandoned cars area were well along the path of a pre- allowed Haligonians to brand Africville cipitous post-war process of decline. The a shanty town or slum” (Erickson 2004: character of the decline, similar in almost 135; see also Clairmont and Magill 1999; all important respects to what happened Stephenson 1957), and served as the jus- in many other North American inner cit- tification for the forcible relocation of resi- ies, is shown by Table One (next page). dents and the bulldozing of their homes. The City wanted the land for industrial The decline of the North End Gottingen use, and the northerly extension of har- neighbourhood as revealed in Table One, bour facilities (Clairmont and Magill particularly since 1961, is dramatic. 1999:137-138; Stephenson 1957: 30). Many Population declined in real terms—in moved into the newly-constructed 2001 it was just over 40 percent of its 1951 Uniacke Square, on Gottingen Street to level; and declined relative to Halifax as the south of Africville, in the heart of the a whole—from almost one in ten to about North End. one in seventy-five (1.3 percent). People were leaving the North End in large A better alternative was possible. Gov- numbers, many for the expanding sub- ernments could have invested in urbs. Persons per household declined Africville, bringing services up to the sharply, from just over 4 in 1951 and 1961, level of the rest of Halifax, and building to just under two in 1996. Although this creatively on the unique strengths of the turned around in 2001 to two and one- community. Residents of Africville had a half, it still suggests that it was families strong sense of themselves as a commu- with children who were disproportion- nity; few were on social assistance; most ately among those leaving the North raised healthy families in their modest End. This is confirmed by the decline in homes; music was an important part of the proportion of the population in the the lives of many. It cannot be an exag- Gottingen neighbourhood 14 years of age geration to say that racism played a pow- and under from 27 percent in 1951 to 16 erful role in the historic under-invest- percent in 1996 (Melles 2003:95). The pro- ment in, and the ultimate bulldozing of, portion of those renting grew to just this unique community. It is deeply ironic under 90 percent, compared to Halifax as
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 11 a whole at less than 40 percent. The pro- there were a total of 130 retail and com- portion of those employed dropped mercial services located on the street. sharply, from approximately two-thirds These included ten different restaurants in 1951 to less than half in 2001—and this and cafes; two movie theatres; a combined is reflected in the relative drop in average total of nineteen physicians, dentists, law- household income, from 60 percent of yers and tailors: “Gottingen Street was that in Halifax as a whole in 1971 to just the place to shop, dine and be entertained 48 percent of Halifax as a whole in 2001, in the city” (Melles 2003: 14). Yet over the and in the growth in the proportion of 50 year period to 2000, the total number those in Gottingen with incomes below of retail and commercial services located the Statistics Canada Low-Income Cut on that four-block area of Gottingen Off, from 58 percent in 1981 to 65 per- Street declined from 130 to 38, a total only cent, or almost two-thirds, in 1996, with slightly greater than the 35 vacancies by a subsequent drop to 59 percent in 2001— 2000, while the number of social and a relative decline consistent with the ex- community services located there grew perience in Canada as a whole (Silver from one in 1960 to 19 in 2000. 2007b:183). “The abundance of social agencies, Another indicator of the decline of the vacant buildings and vacant land North End is to be found in the chang- evident by the year 2000 has changed ing character of Gottingen Street itself. the form and function of this four- In 1950, Gottingen Street was the puls- block commercial district. In fact, one ing and thriving heart of the North End. can no longer consider this portion of Within a span of four blocks at the south Gottingen Street a true commercial end of Gottingen, closest to downtown, district.... The social agencies attract
Table One: Gottingen Indicators to 2001 Population 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 1996 2001 Gottingen 11,939 13,070 7584 5194 5580 4494 4943 Halifax 133,931 183,946 222,637 277,727 320,501 332,518 359,190 Pop’n Gottingen 8.9% 7.1% 3.4% 1.9% 1.7% 1.4% 1.3% as % of Halifax Persons/household Gottingen 4.1 4.3 3.7 2.3 2.1 1.9 2.6 % employed Gottingen 68% 75% 58% 56% 60% 51% 46% % tenant-occupied Gottingen 78% 76% 83% 87% 87% 87% 89.5% Halifax 45% 45% 50% 44% 42% 40% 38.2% Avg household income Gottingen n/a n/a $6196 $13,431 $23,390 $22,389 $27 209 Halifax n/a n/a $10,293 $23,807 $46,786 $48,015 $56 361 Gottingen n/a n/a 60.2% 56.4% 50.0% 46.6% 48.3% as % of Halifax Incidence of low income (%) Gottingen n/a n/a n/a 58% 55% 65% 59.3% (%) Halifax n/a n/a n/a 35% 34% 40% 36.5% Source: Melles, 2003
12 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax only service users while the under- relocated to Mulgrave Park, a large pub- utilized spaces discourage any [other] lic housing project opened in 1962 and type of street activity—a complete located north of Uniacke Square between transformation from its previous Gottingen and Barrington Streets. expression and multi-purpose utility” Gottingen itself was re-configured from (Melles 2003: 93). the “Main Street” of the North End to a traffic corridor re-designed to move cars This dramatic commercial decline, which rapidly from across the harbour in accompanied the loss of population, is Dartmouth, over the A. Murray MacKay shown in Table Two. Bridge—one foot of which was planted where Africville had been located—to The Bulldozers of downtown and back. To achieve this, Urban Renewal parking was banned on Gottingen Street and residential buildings behind and to While a part of the explanation for the the east of Gottingen were bulldozed, and decline of Gottingen Street and the sur- the 660 people who had lived there were rounding North End neighbourhood relocated, to create off-street parking lots was the powerful impact that (Melles 2003: 39; see also Stephenson suburbanization had on inner cities al- 1957: 25-28). most everywhere in North America in the post-war period, another part was the Thus several urban renewal processes particularly destructive impact of the were going on at the same time in the “urban renewal” era of the 1960s on 1960s, each having a dramatic effect on North End Halifax. The area immediately the North End. Africville was bulldozed south of the North End and below Cita- at the North End’s northernmost tip, its del Hill, around Jacob Street, was bull- residents forcibly relocated to the more dozed in the 1960s and Scotia Square—a central and southerly areas of the North large retail/commercial/residential com- End—many to Uniacke Square, opened plex—was erected, located a stone’s in 1966. At the other end, the area imme- throw from the Gottingen Street entrance diately south of the Gottingen Street en- to the North End, and attracting busi- trance to the North End was similarly ness away from Gottingen Street. The bulldozed, many of its former residents 1600 people displaced in this process were relocated to Mulgrave Park. Thus two of
Table Two: Gottingen Services 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 Retail 95 104 69 49 36 28 Financial 24331nil Professional 19 13 9551 Restaurants/cafes 10 13 11 7 6 8 Entertainment 443661 Community/social services nil 1 4 10 13 19 Vacant buildings 199302535 Vacant lots 2 1 nil 2 5 6 No return 2 11 7 16 Total retail/commercial 130 138 95 70 54 38 Source: Melles 2003: 93.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 13 the large public housing projects now fined as “slums” by people in positions located on Gottingen Street, Mulgrave of authority, who viewed them from the Park and Uniacke Square, were “...born outside and who had little if any intimate out of destruction of neighbourhoods” knowledge of the lives of their residents, (Melles 2003: 41) that was everywhere a and who were unable or unwilling to see central and defining feature of urban re- the many strengths that were there to be newal. As was the case elsewhere (Silver seen and to be built upon. A different and 2006b), these neighbourhoods were de- better alternative was possible.
14 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax Gentrification
Gentrification, the concept, entered aca- steady rise in property values, many demic discourse in 1964, in the work of old and new residents hope the area British sociologist Ruth Glass. Glass ob- will become ‘hot’, trendy and expen- served that after decades of inner-city sive” (Anderson 1990). disinvestment—the consequence in part of the post-war phenomenon of subur- All the elements of a definition of gentri- ban sprawl—older working class neigh- fication are to be found in these passages: bourhoods in London were being re- the movement of money into older, core settled by middle class or higher-income area neighbourhoods, ie., reinvestment groups, and the original residents were in real estate; the movement of new and being displaced. different groups of people into, and older, usually lower-income groups of people “One by one, many of the working- out of, such neighbourhoods; and the re- class quarters of London have been sulting creation of neighbourhoods with invaded by the middle-classes—upper a different social character. This process and lower. Shabby, modest mews and is not confined to London or New York. cottages—two rooms up and two “Gentrification today is ubiquitous in the down—have been taken over, when central and inner cities of the advanced their leases have expired, and have capitalist world” (Smith 1996: 38). North become elegant, expensive residences. End Halifax is one such instance. Larger Victorian houses, downgraded in an earlier or recent period—which The literature contains references to were used as lodging houses or were neighbourhood characteristics that cor- otherwise in multiple occupation— relate with gentrification. Neighbour- have been upgraded once again.... hoods that become gentrified tend to have Once this process of ‘gentrification’ proximity to the central business district, starts in a district it goes on rapidly or to an ‘elite’ district, and architecturally until all or most of the original work- interesting housing capable of renova- ing-class occupiers are displaced and tion. They may have commercial facili- the whole social character of the ties capable of being transformed into the district is changed” (Glass 1964: xviii). kinds of shops and boutiques often as- sociated with gentrified neighbourhoods Writing some 25 years later, American an- (Beauregard 1986; Ley 1996). More thropologist Elijah Anderson described broadly, gentrified neighbourhoods re- a similar process in New York City: quire “...an economy that supports the “The Village can increasingly be de- production of gentrifiers”, that is, an scribed as a middle- to upper middle- economy that produces “...a substantial class oasis. It is at present beset by the body of professionals and managers forces of gentrification, with developers, working for government and for univer- speculators, and more privileged sities, hospitals, and other institutions. classes gradually buying up proper- Gentrification is limited or absent in such ties inhabited by less well-off people of cities as manufacturing centres, where diverse backgrounds. Gambling on a advanced white-collar services are weakly
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 15 established” (Ley 1996: 24-25). These Thus it becomes important to identify the characteristics describe Halifax and its players contesting this space. Who sees near North End. the North End Halifax neighbourhood as ‘exchange value’, and seeks to make Gentrification is not inevitable in any profits from it? Who sees the neighbour- given neighbourhood, even those ‘vul- hood as ‘use value’, and seeks to revital- nerable’ to the process. That this is so is ize it without displacing existing resi- in large part because gentrification is a dents? In whose interests does the local political process. There are contending state act, and how? forces at play in any potentially gentrifiable neighbourhood. Some of these forces may see the “exchange value” “The Condos Are Coming”: in a neighbourhood, that is, they see the Gentrification in neighbourhood as a place to make prof- North End Halifax its, while others see the “use value” in a a. qualitative indicators neighbourhood, that is, they see the neighbourhood as a place to live, as a People interviewed in and around community (Logan and Molotch 1987). Uniacke Square in May 20071 made it clear that they believe a process of The result is political conflict between gentrification is underway in the neigh- those who see a neighbourhood as a place bourhood. Most said things like: “prop- to make money, and those who see a erty values are just going through the neighbourhood as a place to live. The roof”; “gentrification is going so fast outcome of this conflict is a product of right now”; “this is a prime piece of real the relative strengths, skills and tenacity estate” because real estate is all about “lo- of the contending forces. This neigh- cation, location, location”; and “the bourhood-level political conflict occurs condos are coming”. For example, The within the context of broader socio-eco- Brickyard is a brand new condo devel- nomic forces: The movements of capital opment on Brunswick Street, where Al- in search of profits; the socio-economic exander School was once located, about forces and policy decisions shaping a a block from Uniacke Square. Units start city’s course; the shifting character of at just over $250,000. It features “mod- social class as the consequence of broad ern amenities for a contemporary urban socio-economic change; and the role lifestyle”, and is for “those who enjoy the played by the state. In the process of convenience and verve of city living” gentrification, a neighbourhood becomes (www.domusrealty.ca/en/home/ ‘contested space’—some forces promote homelistings/thebrickyard/default.aspx. and some oppose gentrification. Accessed July 21, 2007). Located two
1. Interviews were conducted with fifteen individuals who live and/or work in and around Unaicke Square in North End Halifax, May 14-18, 2007. These individuals were identified with the assistance of Darcy Harvey of Community Action on Homelessness, at whose invitation I had spoken on public housing in Halifax in September, 2006. At that time I also spoke, at their invitation, at the first-ever Uniacke Square Tenants’ Association conference. During that trip I met almost all of the fifteen people subsequently interviewed. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. The project as a whole, and the interview format, were approved by the University of Winnipeg Senate Ethics Committee. In some cases in what follows I have identified particular interviewees; in others I have cited the interviews gener- ally. All those interviewed are identified at the end of the References section of this paper.
16 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax streets down from the Brickyard, facing the Halifax harbour, and TransGlobe has the harbour, is “Spice”, another condo added a fitness room and wireless serv- development offering “...loft style condo- ices (Chronicle Herald, April 29, 2006: D5), miniums in the heart of downtown” plus stadium-style lights deliberately in- (
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 17 gested by the qualitative evidence. How- houses, the average price of which was ever, the data for Census district 10 do $295,000 in North End Halifax in 2007. reflect, albeit in a modest way, the gentrification that the qualitative evi- Table Four shows that rents have been dence suggests is well underway. rising almost as fast in North End Hali- fax as in the HRM, 30.4 percent compared Table Three shows that the average price to 31.2 percent from 1997 to 2006, and of housing of various kinds has been ris- that the average North End rent, at $734, ing faster in North End Halifax than in is beyond the reach of the low-income the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) earners and social assistance recipients as a whole in the period 1998 to 2007. that comprise the majority in Uniacke The average price of detached bungalows, Square and surrounding area. for example, rose by 86 percent in the These housing prices and rental rates, and North End compared to 67 percent in the their trends in recent years, strongly sug- HRM, while the average price of stand- gest that a process of gentrification is well ard two-story houses rose by 60 percent underway in North End Halifax, and in the North End compared to 46 per- that housing is being priced out of the cent in the HRM. Table Three also shows reach of many North End residents. that, in addition to rising rapidly, aver- Uniacke Square is being squeezed into an age housing prices in North End Hali- ever-smaller space, and is vulnerable to fax are well beyond the reach of low-in- the forces of gentrification. come earners and social assistance recipi- ents. The average household income in North End Halifax in 2001 was $27,209 North End Halifax As a (See Table One, p.14), and when 2006 data Mixed-Income Neighbourhood are available it is likely to be in the There are those who would argue that $32,000–35,000 range, which could not North End Halifax is better understood possibly support a mortgage of as a mixed-income neighbourhood, with $160,000—the average price of a detached an already disproportionately high inci- bungalow in North End Halifax in 2007. dence of low-income households, and The case is worse for standard two-story that the creation of the kind of housing
Table Three: Housing Prices Detached bungalow 1998 2000 2007 % change HRM $114,000 $112,000 $190,000 66.6% North End 86,000 90,000 160,000 86.1% NE as % HRM 75.4% 80.4% 84.2% Standard Townhouse 1998 2000 2007 % change HRM n/a $92,000 $164,000 78.2% North End n/a 89,000 160,000 79.8% NE as % HRM n/a 96.7% 97.6% Standard Two-Story House 1998 2000 2007 % change HRM $133,000 $129,000 $194,000 45.9% North End 185,000 190,000 295,000 59.5% NE as % HRM 139.1 % 147.3 % 152.1% Source: Royal LePage. Survey of Canadian House Prices, 1998-2007.
18 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax that can attract modest- and higher-in- area to stay in, or to return to, the neigh- come individuals into the neighbour- bourhood. This is important, commu- hood will produce benefits for those who nity-building work, intended to create “a are poor. This is unlikely to be the case, decent, affordable and pleasant neigh- for two reasons. First, it has become far bourhood for the people who live there” too difficult, in the absence of meaning- (Wanzel 2006). The Creighton-Gerrish ful government support and funding, to Development Association has made a produce significant numbers of new particularly important contribution to units of affordable housing. Second, the the neighbourhood in this way. existing literature does not support the contention that those who are poor ben- An especially significant aspect of the efit directly from the presence in their lo- work of Creighton/Gerrish, however, is cale of higher-income individuals. how extremely difficult it is given the se- vere shortage of government funding and North End Halifax has a higher propor- supportive policies and programs. The tion of social and co-op housing than amount of community effort required, other Halifax neighbourhoods, a tribute relative to the number of units of social to the hard work of the local community. and affordable housing produced, makes A good example of current community- it unsustainable as a model for the crea- based housing efforts is the Creighton/ tion of the numbers of low-income and Gerrish Development Association. Estab- affordable housing units that are needed. lished in 1995, it is a non-profit devel- Wanzel himself has described the work oper that works in partnership with four as being left “naked, alone and without community-based, non-profit societies. the financial resources to do so”. Headed by Grant Wanzel of the “Resourceless, too few housing activists Dalhousie University School of Architec- and non-profit developers find them- ture, Creighton/Gerrish builds low-in- selves fighting too many battles on too come and affordable housing in the many fronts”. Given this, what Uniacke Square area. They have con- Creighton/Gerrish has been able to structed a 19-unit apartment building on achieve is remarkable: “Creighton/ Gottingen Street for low-income, “hard- Gerrish is making a difference in the well- to-house” singles that is owned and being of several families and many indi- managed by the Metro Non-Profit Hous- viduals”. This is important. But, argues ing Association; six semi-detached, sub- Wanzel, these gains have come as the re- sidized “affordable” houses on Creighton sult of “...a staggering amount of effort: Street for first-time homeowners with time and energy far beyond any reason- incomes less than $50,000; and have able estimate of what would be sustain- plans to construct more low-income able”, with the result that the model can- housing in the area. The strategy is to not be seen as the “...prototype we had make it possible for people with a long- hoped it would be. We can learn from it, time connection to the Gottingen Street but it’s not to be emulated” (Wanzel 2006).
Table Four: Rental Rates Private apartment average rents 1997 2000 2006 % change Halifax CMA $567 $606 $744 31.2% Peninsula North 563 601 734 30.4% Source: CMHC. Rental Market Report Halifax CMA, 1998-2006.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 19 A reasonable conclusion to be drawn from “...there are risks for the lower-income this analysis is not only that governments residents due to the higher participa- have massively failed Canadians as regards tion of more affluent residents [be- housing, but also that, if it is this difficult cause] ...the particular needs and to create new units of social housing, such priorities of low- versus higher- as the 19 units built by Creighton/Gerrish income residents may differ substan- on Gottingen, then it makes good sense tially, and the unequal distribution to defend the social housing that already of power and resources among exists, such as the 184 units at Uniacke residents (and among local organiza- Square. Given the extreme difficulty of tions acting on their behalf) may creating new low-income rental housing, exacerbate such differences and lead even by highly-skilled, dedicated and pro- to differential benefits that favor fessional developers like Creighton/ those with more influence.... Increas- Gerrish, then the loss of the already exist- ing the number of higher-income ing low-income rental units at Uniacke people within a community, there- Square would be an irreplaceable loss. The fore, does not ensure that the par- difficulties inherent in the kind of work ticular needs of lower-income resi- being done by Creighton/Gerrish reveal dents will be met”. clearly the extent to which Uniacke These authors argue, consistent with the Square, with its existing, good quality, argument that will be advanced later in low-income rental units, is best seen an this paper, that the needs of low-income asset to the community. residents of public housing projects are Some argue that attracting higher-in- best met by investing directly in devel- come individuals into a low-income oping their individual and collective ca- neighbourhood will benefit the low-in- pacities (Joseph, Chaskin and Webber come individuals. Several mechanisms 2007: 394-395). Their analysis of the lit- are hypothesized to be the means by erature suggests very strongly that nei- which low-income individuals will ben- ther mixed-income housing nor efit. One often advanced, for example, is gentrification offer solutions for low-in- that the presence in a low-income neigh- come residents in areas like the North bourhood of higher-income individuals End of Halifax. Indeed, as will be argued will add to the neighbourhood’s ability below, gentrification poses a great threat to secure needed services. It has been ar- to the residents of Uniacke Square. gued as regards the case of the North End of Halifax, for example, that: “Those “This is a Modern-Day Africville”: who are buying the condos and restor- The Vulnerability of ing heritage properties are contributing Uniacke Square to the demographic mix and add badly needed political clout and savvy” (Wanzel Uniacke Square, opened in 1966, rela- 2006). Yet the empirical evidence provides tively quickly took on most of the char- little support for this contention. Indeed, acteristics so typical of large, post-war, in a recent and very thorough analysis inner-city public housing projects, as of the literature on mixed-income hous- described above. It continues to this day ing and its benefits for low-income peo- to be characterized by spatially concen- ple (Joseph, Chaskin and Webber 2007: trated racialized poverty. Many of those 394) it was concluded that: in Uniacke Square are among the very
20 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax poor. Many are single parents, mostly residents in a neighbourhood north of single mothers, and just under one-half Uniacke Square had already said “we in 2001 were on social assistance. A don’t want Africville people here” higher proportion of Uniacke’s popula- (Clairmont and Magill 1999). One early tion of approximately 425 people is Afri- resident said that in the 1960s it was can Nova-Scotian than is the case for common for African-Nova Scotians to Halifax as a whole. There is some sug- be told by barbers and restaurant staff, gestion that when people have opportu- “we don’t cut niggers’ hair” and “we nities for education or employment they don’t serve niggers here”, and he de- will leave Uniacke Square (personal in- scribed the Halifax police force at that terviews, May 2007). This is very much time as “the most racist police force in the case in other such inner-city public Canada” (personal interview, May 2007; housing projects, where people come into see also Kimber 2006 and 1992; Winks the public housing at a low point in their 1997: 325, 349). Remarkably, schools lives—the projects become “housing of were not desegregated until 1955 (Melles last resort” for those most in need (Sil- 2003: 41), only a decade before Uniacke ver 2006b)—and they leave when they Square was opened in 1966. African- begin to get their lives together, thus Nova Scotians living in the North End ensuring a steady supply in the public were effectively denied entry into the housing projects of those in the most dif- various industrial occupations associ- ficult circumstances. ated with the neighbouring Halifax ship and dock yards and other industries. Many in Uniacke Square were caught in Young Black men have long since come a cycle of poverty from the start, as the simply to assume that they will not get consequence not only of their being for- jobs in these places (personal interview, cibly removed from Africville, but also May 2007), and racism generally contin- being offered few supports in their new ues to be a defining feature of day-to- housing at Uniacke Square. This lack of day life in and around Uniacke Square— social supports—“they didn’t provide “racism is pronounced” in the North nothing else but the shelter”, said one End; “there is racism; nothing has long-time resident (personal interview changed”—according to many recently May 2007; see also Clairmont and Magill interviewed in the city’s North End 1999)—has been typical of such urban re- (personal interviews, May 2007; see also location schemes in twentieth century Melles 2003: 119-120). North America (Silver 2006b). In this context of spatially concentrated When those from Africville arrived at racialized poverty, it is perhaps not sur- Uniacke Square, not only was there lit- prising that violence and drugs and tle by way of social supports, but also street sexual exploitation are to be found. they faced a wall of racism and discrimi- The Square is known as a place where nation. As long ago as 1957 it was crack cocaine can be purchased; very openly acknowledged that “It is only in young people—pre- or early-teens—are certain parts of the Study Area [North lured into delivering drugs, paid with End Halifax], and not elsewhere in Hali- $200 sneakers; and some women are “run fax with the exception of Africville, that by the crack... there are women who are negro families can find housing accom- driven by the crack” (MacKay, personal modation (Stephenson 1957: 32). Some interview, May 18, 2007). For some it be-
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 21 comes a vicious cycle: severe poverty; low ferently or something happens, s/he levels of education; lack of self-esteem; “...wonders if it’s because you are Black drugs; addictions; dealers; violence; need that you’re treated a certain way” for money to feed the addictions; lack of (Mendes, personal interview, May 16, job opportunities; crime; street sex exploi- 2007). It feeds the lack of self-esteem that tation. “It’s a huge system” fueled by is so common amongst people who are poverty and racism (MacKay, personal the victims of racialized poverty. “Self- interview, May 18, 2007), and as a conse- esteem is a significant issue for most peo- quence those who live in Uniacke ple” in Uniacke Square and the sur- Square, whether caught up in the cycle rounding area, says a long-time commu- or not, are stigmatized. nity worker (O’Hara, personal interview, May 14, 2007). As a result, many people Yet repeatedly those who live and/or are reluctant to move far beyond the bor- work in the area insist that the image of ders of Uniacke Square, because they “the Square” is a false one. A young Black know that they are looked at and judged resident of the Square began an interview in negative ways (Kimber 2007). It places with an angry denunciation of what he an invisible wall—the “Berlin Wall”, as described as “the false negative image” of one resident calls it (Morton, personal in- the area (Morton, personal interview, terview, May 15, 2007)—around Uniacke, May 2007). Virtually every other inter- keeping people in. This is the case in many viewee insisted that the image is largely large inner-city public housing projects false, or at least simplistic. The reality, (see Silver 2007a). For example, the North they argued, is more complex: people in End Community Health Centre was es- the neighbourhood know each other; tablished in 1971 on Gottingen Street a there is a strong sense of community; couple of blocks from Uniacke Square, in there are many strong families; many part because women in the Square said young people are doing well (personal that they were fed up with taking their interviews, May 2007). This is not to children to doctors’ offices downtown or deny that there are problems; but the in the South End, where they were made problems are not as severe as the nega- to feel unwelcome and were looked down tive image would lead people from out- upon (O’Hara, personal interviw, May side the community to believe, and there 14, 2007). When a television production is more to Uniacke Square than prob- crew from outside Halifax came to lems. In fact, the negative image prevents Uniacke Square to film an event, they those from outside seeing the more com- were told by sources in Halifax that “you plex, and more positive, reality. The better hope that truck’s got locks on it”. stigma and stereotypes obscure the They parked their truck elsewhere. Yet strengths in Uniacke Square. when the event and the filming were over, local residents and children pitched in to What is more, the image—the stigma and help with clean-up and the hauling and stereotypes—hurt the people who live at loading of equipment, and were told by Uniacke Square. “The stigma takes its the television crew that they were more effect”, says a long-time resident helpful and friendly than anyone in all (Nelligan, personal interview, May 17, the other places the crew had filmed 2007). When an African-Nova Scotian (Nelligan, personal interview, May 17, goes out and about and is looked at dif- 2007). As was the case with Africville, the
22 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax image is at odds with the much more com- about the threat of “another Africville- plex, and in many important respects type relocation” (Clairmont and Magill more positive, reality. 1999: xx). In 2004 the provincial Com- munity Services minister circulated a let- Yet the danger is that this negative im- ter to tenants assuring them that Uniacke age, the stigma and stereotypes, may Square would not be sold (van Berkel serve as a justification for doing to 2005). Yet the local City Councillor says Uniacke Square what was done to the fear of such a sale continues to be “the Africville a half century ago, and what biggest issue I hear”. People in Uniacke has been done to large inner-city public are asking, “What if they sell this place?” housing projects throughout North (Sloane, personal interview, May 16, America more recently. Bennett and Reed 2007). Kimber (2007) quotes Marcus (1999), for example, have argued that in James of the North End Public Library: the case of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green there “A lot of young people won’t go south of was a deliberate strategy to construct an the Library or north of the Square exaggerated and inaccurately negative anymore. They don’t feel welcome. The image in order to justify a “redevelop- people here see all these $250,000 condos ment” of the project. The reason, in all going up. They know that these kinds such cases: others want the land. The of places and low-income housing don’t method of removal may be different for go together. Guess which one goes?”. Uniacke Square than it was for Africville, One resident, harking back to the destruc- or for the massive housing projects in tion of Africville and linking that to the Chicago. There is pressure to make at danger of losing Uniacke Square, said: least some of the units in Unaicke Square “History has a way of repeating itself; this available for sale to existing tenants. It is a modern-day Africville” (Morton, per- will be argued by those who want this sonal interview, May 15, 2007). land for other purposes, that making all or some of the units available for sale is It is not the bulldozer that poses the dan- in the interests of the residents, and of ger this time; it is the forces of the mar- the broader community. Home owner- ket. Once units are made available for sale, ship, it will be claimed, will solve many market pressures—given the gentri- of Uniacke Square’s problems. Indeed, a fication in the area—will push their prices recent Halifax report advocated just that: well beyond what low-income people can “HRM should lobby the NS (Nova afford. Once that which is public becomes Scotia) Department of Community private, it is subject to the powerful forces Services to consider selling at least of the market, for sale at whatever may half of the units in Uniacke Square to be the going price, like any other com- their current occupants, to create a modity. If existing tenants are afforded critical mass of pride of ownership the option to purchase their units, they and community stewardship” (HRM will face pressures to sell at prices that April 2004: 11). will seem to them, as people who are poor, to be a small fortune. Yet once they The fear of such a sale is a common topic sell, the units will be lost in future to of conversation in and around Unaicke people of low income, and will become Square. Twenty years ago the Executive just another part of the rising prices of Director of the Black United Front of North End Halifax. Current tenants will Nova Scotia is reported to have warned have to leave the neighbourhood; the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 23 shortage of low-income rental units, al- money spent in bulldozing Africville was ready severe, will be made worse. “We’re roughly equivalent to what it would desperate for housing stock”, said a so- have taken to bring the community’s cial worker in the area (Grant, personal services up to the level of Halifax (Kimber interview, May 16, 2007), and the priva- 2006). Not taking that option has had tization of Uniacke Square will only tragic consequences. deepen that desperation. The same mistake can still be avoided in Yet, just as was the case with Africville, Uniacke Square. The alternative is to in- another solution is possible. In the case vest in the residents of Uniacke Square, of Africville, the residents wanted to stay creating opportunities for them, and pro- in their homes and their community, and viding supports to enable them to real- wanted the city to invest in running ize those opportunities, and working water, modern sewage and paved roads— with them to revitalize their neighbour- as the city had done in the rest of Hali- hood in ways of their choosing. The re- fax. The City replied that it could not af- sult would be, in the long run, that ford to do so, and that the bulldozing of Uniacke Square would be a healthy and Africville and the forcible relocation of its pleasant neighbourhood, in which low- residents was in the residents’ own long- income people enjoy affordable, good term interests. In the end, the amount of quality housing.
24 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax An Alternative Way Forward For Uniacke Square
There has been substantial investment at enues of the Halifax Regional Municipal- various times in the post-war period in ity—this has been a major factor in pri- the Gottingen Street area, but the neigh- vatization and gentrification efforts in the bourhood has continued its long decline USA (Slater 2005: 54)—and would be con- (Melles 2003). The problem, at least in sistent with various HRM plans. part, has been that too much of the in- However, there is another, more difficult vestment has focused on “bricks and and necessarily more long-term path that mortar” (Melles 2003: 88-89). But also, involves strategically investing in the what social investment has been made neighbourhood to build the capacities has not been “deliberate and strategic” and skills of those who are already there; (O’Hara, personal interview, May 14, building on the many strengths in the 2007), and it has not built on the community; and doing so with and not strengths and involvement of the people for the people who live in Uniacke Square. who live there. A wide variety of social agencies have located in the area. “Small If such an asset-based approach to com- clusters of opportunities” (O’Hara, per- munity development were to be adopted sonal interview, May 14, 2007) have been at Uniacke Square (Kretzmann and created. But the agencies do not work McKnight 1993), the starting point would together as well as they might be to identify the assets in the commu- (Bohdanow 2006: 38), and there is no nity, and to build on them. This requires overall strategy for transformation. As shifting from the “deficit lens”—seeing another neighbourhood worker put it: only the problems and the associated “There’s gotta be a bigger vision” (Levy, stigma and stereotypes—that is so com- personal interview, May 17, 2007). monly applied to Uniacke Square and surrounding area, to a lens that con- Some fear that the lack of vision, the ab- sciously identifies the strengths, the as- sence of a strategic approach to the area, sets, that exist in all communities, how- is deliberate. As one long-time neigh- ever difficult their circumstances may be. bourhood worker put it: “The advantage to government is not to have a plan” (per- Perhaps the first asset in Uniacke Square sonal interview May 2007). By that he is the strong sense of community that al- means that it is in the interests of gov- most everyone interviewed for this ernment to allow the neighbourhood to project identified immediately. As John continue to deteriorate, and then blame Fleming, Senior Property Manager with the residents and the flaws of public the Metropolitan Regional Housing Au- housing for the problems, and use that thority and former Property Manager at as justification for privatizing Uniacke Uniacke Square, and a man who grew Square. The resulting privatization and up in the immediate area, puts it, “peo- gentrification would make the neigh- ple know each other”; “it’s a community bourhood look better more quickly, that comes together”; there are “lots of would put the land to what some plan- great people” in Uniacke (Fleming, per- ners would call a “better and higher” sonal interview, May 14, 2007). Joan use, would increase the property tax rev- Mendes (personal interview, May 16,
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 25 2007), Director of the North End Parent and while they are generally underfunded Resource Centre said: “Basically, there’s and do not work in as coordinated a fash- a lot of good families in the community”. ion as they might, they do good work. Almost everyone interviewed said simi- What follows is not intended to be ex- lar things—that although there are haustive, but rather illustrative of the problems and many are serious, never- important assets available in the Uniacke theless the negative image of Uniacke is Square area. overblown, or at least too unidimen- sional, and there are many strong peo- The North End Parent Resource Centre, ple and a strong sense of community in opened in 1986, is located in four units the neighbourhood. at Uniacke Square and offers a range of services and supports to low-income par- In addition, it appears that the buildings ents, and especially to young Black at Uniacke Square are, generally speak- women and mothers. They run a drop- ing, well-maintained and in good shape. in centre; a Parent Education Project for Fleming is adamant that the buildings teen mothers; a childcare program; a sup- “are in great shape”, and he adds: “I’m port program for pre-teen girls; a collec- really proud of the housing we have”; tive kitchen; a laundry room that is busy; “there would be no reason for you not and offer a variety of short and practical to want to live in them”; and “I fight for educational opportunities. that every day” (Fleming, personal inter- The North End Community Health Cen- view, May 14, 2007). He fights for that tre, established in 1971 and located on because “I believe everyone has a right Gottingen Street, two blocks from to good housing”—in itself an interest- Uniacke Square, is “seen as the blueprint ing and radical idea given the area’s, and for how to run a community health Canada’s, chronic shortage of good qual- clinic” (O’Hara, personal interview, May ity housing for the millions in Canada 14, 2007). It offers much-needed medical who are poor (Silver 2007b). The area services right in the neighbourhood, Councillor, Dawn Sloane, concurs that and does community outreach and com- the buildings are “in pretty good shape” munity building. (Sloane, personal interview, May 16, 2007). Thus they constitute an espe- The Halifax North Memorial Public Li- cially important asset in a city in which brary is located on Gottingen Street next low-income rental housing is in short to Uniacke Square, and is no ordinary supply, and building new social hous- library. Like the nearby Gottingen Street ing is so difficult. YMCA, it offers a range of programs for young people, including a leadership pro- This is an excellent basis upon which to gram called “Youth and Community To- build: the availability of solid, good qual- gether 4 Peace” (Kimber 2007), and has ity affordable housing at a time of severe long been a gathering place for the shortage of such housing; and the pres- Uniacke Square community. ence at Uniacke of some strong people, and a strong sense of community. The community itself stages various events: an annual Black basketball tour- There are also many strong community- nament that involves local youth; an based organizations (CBOs) and social annual “beautification day” that in- agencies working in the neighbourhood, volves parents and builds community
26 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax pride; and the first-ever Uniacke Square neath the image, there was an eight year Tenants’ Association Conference in 2006. old boy who wanted to impress an adult, and to show off his reading. The poten- Community-based organizations like tial in such a boy is limitless; the dan- Community Action on Homelessness gers, should that potential not be nur- and the Halifax Coalition Against Pov- tured, are considerable. erty play an important advocacy role, giving voice in various ways to the in- Women provide leadership in Uniacke terests of low-income residents. Square, as is so often the case in inner- city initiatives and public housing George Dixon Recreation Centre is part projects (Silver 2007a; 2006a). It was of Uniacke Square, and runs a wide women in Uniacke Square who initi- range of programs, including youth lead- ated the process that led to the estab- ership programs and job opportunities lishment in 1971 of the North End Com- for young people, and a program for munity Health Centre (O’Hara, per- women called “Step-up-to-Leadership” sonal interview, May 14, 2007). And in that is taught by one of the community the past year or so the “PEP-Bro Di- police officers. vas”, a group of women in Uniacke Square, have emerged as leaders. Six There is a community police office located women took a course called “Person- in Uniacke Square, and the two officers ally Empowering People”, and when operate very much in a community de- they had completed the course the “Di- velopment fashion. Constable Amy vas” wanted to use their new-found MacKay, for example, visits local schools self-confidence. “So they said let’s just and reads to children, walks around the do it” (Sloane, personal interview, May Square and meets and talks with people, 16, 2007). They started a new incarna- voluntarily tutors two children, and tion of the Tenants’ Association, built teaches the “Step-up-to-Leadership” pro- a skating rink in the community, were gram at George Dixon. She tells the story the driving forces in initiating the of a young boy of about eight years who $70,000 redevelopment of Dixon field, she feared was at risk of heading down and organized the first-ever Uniacke the wrong path. She was hesitant to Square Tenants’ Association Conference speak with him for fear that he would in September 2006. As Constable Amy not want to be seen speaking with the MacKay (personal interview, May 18, police. She finally called to him as he was 2007) puts it, “These women are strong walking one day to George Dixon, a few women”. They have been through minutes away. “Can I walk with you?”, hard times. They have the kinds of ex- she asked. He mumbled a gruff “I guess periential knowledge that is invaluable so”, and they walked in silence, his eyes and irreplaceable in doing community to the ground. When they arrived at development work in places like George Dixon the boy, dressed in baggy Uniacke Square. They have trans- clothes and with his hat on sideways in formed their own lives in ways that are stereotypical fashion, unexpectedly dramatic. And it has spilled over into “asked me if he could read me a book... the community. “Older folks in the outside where everyone can see me!” neighbourhood are noticing the (MacKay, personal interview, May 18, change” (Sloane, personal interview, 2007). Beneath the tough exterior, be- May 16, 2007).
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 27 The Divas are an example of what is pos- included “lots of growing and learning”, sible, and of the strengths that are in and the women have bonded so intensely Uniacke Square and can be built upon. that “we will always be a group” They called themselves the “PEP-Bro Di- (Nelligan, personal interview, May 17, vas” because they got their start with the 2007). In addition, the experience reveals Personally Empowering People (PEP) what is possible when opportunities are program; because “we felt that we were made available to people to enable them strong women in our communities and to grow, and when supports are there to we took on the role of men”, thus “Bro”; enable them to begin to solve their own and because “we’re a classy group of la- problems in ways that they determine. dies”, thus “Divas” (Nelligan, personal This is community development, and interview, May 17, 2007). Their work in the Divas have shown the beginnings the neighbourhood has a clear commu- of what is possible. Much more could nity development character. Donna be done if such a method were to be Nelligan says that they believed that “if linked to a deliberate and strategic ap- there was a change to be made [it is]... proach to neighbourhood change that up to the residents”. The formation of the emerged from the people themselves, and new Tenants’ Association was a “big that was supported with strategic pub- thing” for the Divas, says Nelligan, and lic investment. she and the other women grew from the experience. In the case of the redevelop- There is reason to believe that a part of ment of Dixon field, the Divas contacted such a strategy could include a more sys- the Director of the George Dixon Recrea- tematic approach to creating educational tion Centre, and negotiated over a period opportunities. The fledgling GED pro- of time with City officials, and were suc- gram offered at the North End Parent cessful (Levy, personal interview, May 17, Resource Centre may see six or seven 2007). They wanted a skating rink plus women successfully complete their GED other recreational activities because “our (Mendes and Symonds, personal inter- kids were being arrested for minor view, May 16, 2007). Eight-week Intro- things... because they had nothing to duction to Computers programs run by do” (Nelligan, personal interview, May the Centre are well-attended. The Divas 17, 2007). The community-building char- seized the opportunity to take the Per- acter of the creation of the skating rink sonally Empowering People course, and is revealed in a story told by Donna some are continuing with the Step-Up- Nelligan. Seniors from across Gottingen To-Leadership program taught by Con- Street watched the children on the rink, stable Amy MacKay at George Dixon. and got so much pleasure from it that Donna Nelligan is taking a two-year they knit hats and scarves and gave them Child and Youth Care Worker course, to the children. A connection was made and will bring to this kind of work an across the generations. More people got invaluable life experience that cannot be involved. Everyone benefitted when the taught in a classroom. She is likely to be community acted together in ways of an outstanding child and youth worker. their choosing. These examples suggest that when edu- cational opportunities are made available For the Divas, the experience has been locally, residents of the Square seize upon transformational. It has been “a life- them (see also Bohdanow 2006). changing experience for all of us”. It has
28 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax One approach to building upon this ob- tre in the middle of the Developments, servation, this strength, might be simi- with classes timed so that parents can lar to what is being initiated at Lord Sel- walk their children to the local school or kirk Park, a similarly-sized public hous- to daycare and then attend class, and can ing project in Winnipeg’s North End that pick up their children from school and suffers all of the problems and negative take them home for lunch, and pick the stigmatization experienced at Uniacke children up when classes are over at the Square. At Lord Selkirk Park, after a con- end of the day. The program is specifi- certed community effort, an Adult Learn- cally tailored to their daily realities. ing Centre opened in September, 2007, Spaces have been reserved in local offering the mature grade 12 for adults, childcare centres for those students with and particularly for the significant num- pre-school children, and the budget for bers of single parents in the housing the initiative includes money for an Abo- project. The next step in this strategy, riginal elder—a high proportion of ten- now underway, is to build a Family Re- ants are Aboriginal—to be present some source Centre in six units made available afternoons of the week, which was a spe- by Manitoba Housing, and to attach to cific request of residents identified in the it an Early Childhood Education pro- interviewing leading up to the project. gram offered by Red River College and All of the community-based organiza- delivered on-site, at Lord Selkirk Park tions and service agencies in the area— (CCPA-Mb 2007). In several interview- as is the case at Uniacke, there are based projects undertaken by the author, many—work together in a Community people at Lord Selkirk Park have said Advisory Committee (CAC), and the that they would like to improve their members of the CAC are providing a educational credentials and get a job, but wide range of supports to students. It is the barriers to their doing so—especially intended that when students begin to the difficulties associated with travel, graduate with their Mature Grade 12 cer- with childcare, and with an educational tificate or their Early Childhood Educa- system that is still largely Eurocentric and tion qualifications, assistance will be pro- from which Aboriginal people still feel vided to them in either finding a job, or excluded—are simply too great. The moving on to some form of post-second- Adult Learning Centre and the Early ary education. In addition, it is hoped Childhood Education initiative are in- that many of those who do so will choose tended to overcome these barriers, by to stay in the Developments because it bringing educational opportunities to the provides good quality affordable hous- public housing residents, and tailoring ing when such is—in Winnipeg as eve- them to those peoples’ specific circum- rywhere else—in short supply. The result, stances and needs (CCPA-Mb 2007). it is hoped, will be the emergence over time in Lord Selkirk Park of a “mixed- As is the case in Uniacke Square, many income” community built from within. in North End Winnipeg’s Lord Selkirk The intention is to change the image of Park are reluctant to move far beyond the Developments from its current stig- the borders of what they call the Devel- matized status, as a place that people re- opments (Silver 2007a). So the education ally do not want to be, to a place where is being brought to them, located in a opportunities can be found and supports large room in the local community cen- are available to those who choose to turn
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 29 their lives around. As Donna Nelligan within. This approach is rooted in the (personal interview, May 17, 2007) says, belief that, when opportunities are cre- “you have to know that you want to ated and supports provided, people in change”, but the evidence available at low-income communities will respond Lord Selkirk Park strongly suggests that positively, and neighbourhoods will be many people want to change, and would re-built from within. do so if realistic opportunities were made available to them, with the supports that United Way of Halifax Region has initi- they need to succeed. ated an approach very similar to this (Mortimer, personal interview, May 17, While an approach to education such as 2007; Makhoul 2005). Its philosophical that described above may be a useful part roots are that it is resident-led, is built of a Uniacke Square community devel- on a community’s assets, is built on the opment strategy, because it appears to be local knowledge that residents have of something that residents in the commu- their neighbourhoods, and it creates a nity want, more important than such “space” for generating conversations specifics are the principles that might guide among residents, so that they themselves a Uniacke Square revitalization strategy. can define where they want their com- These are the principles that are guiding munity to go, and how they want to get promising inner-city revitalization strat- there. Melles (2003) and Bohdanow egies elsewhere in Canada (Silver 2008; (2006) have both recently called for the Silver and Loxley 2007). In this approach application in Uniacke Square of a simi- the elements of a neighbourhood revitali- lar form of resident-led, asset-based com- zation strategy emerge from within in- munity development. ner-city neighbourhoods, rather than being imported from without. The proc- When an approach consistent with these ess is led largely by inner-city residents principles is adopted, and when govern- themselves, and not outside “experts”, ments invest in such community initia- that is, it is a grassroots and not a top- tives in a strategic fashion—that is, in a down approach. This is an asset-based way intended to enable people to create approach—it seeks to identify and to positive long-term change in ways of their build upon community strengths. It is a choosing—then neighbourhoods like capacity-building approach—it seeks to Uniacke Square can, even if they remain support low-income inner-city residents, relatively low-income, be revitalized, and starting from wherever they may be in the people who live there can come much their lives and taking however long it closer to realizing their full human po- may take, in developing the capacities to tential. This approach has not been begin to contribute to solving their own adopted in Uniacke Square and the sur- problems. It is a “tailored” approach— rounding Gottingen Street area to date. programs and institutions and initiatives Money has been invested, but its effects re-shape their work to fit the particular have been limited: the investment has realities of the people who have experi- been too top-down, too focused on bricks enced spatially concentrated racialized and mortar, insufficiently strategic. The poverty, with all the damage that such a conclusion to be drawn is not that invest- condition can cause. It is a locally-focused ment cannot help, but rather that a par- approach—hire locally, purchase locally, ticular type of public investment is re-invest locally—in order to build from needed. As Jane Jacobs (1961: 292) has
30 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax argued: investment is essential, “indeed income people in future. What is now it is indispensable... but it must be un- Uniacke Square would become derstood that it is not the mere availabil- commodified and then gentrified, the ity of money, but how it is available, that neighbourhood would, in some re- is all important”. There is much good spects, look better, and governments work being done in the Uniacke Square/ and others would congratulate them- Gottingen Street area, but one part of it selves for having “solved the problem” is disconnected from the other, it is for of Uniacke Square. But it would, in ef- the most part aimed at amelioration fect, be the Africville “solution”: a com- rather than transformation, and it is munity would be destroyed and scat- underfunded. It is not part of a deliber- tered and the people now living in ate and strategic approach aimed at Uniacke Square would be no better off, building on the many strengths of the and perhaps worse. Certainly low-in- neighbourhood. Yet moving down such come people in search of good quality a path of neighbourhood renewal is dis- affordable housing in future would be tinctly possible, particularly if the kind worse off. of community development principles described above are encouraged, and if But there is an alternative, just as there those efforts are supported by long-term, was with Africville, and that is to invest strategic public investment. This is a in Uniacke Square and its people in a choice that can be made now. strong and deliberate and strategic fash- ion, working with the residents in the Uniacke Square is at a crossroads. It community to build on the assets that sits in the middle of what has become a are already there, and creating opportu- very valuable piece of property, located nities for people and supports to enable as it is so near to downtown Halifax. them to take advantage of those oppor- Gentrification is well underway in the tunities, in ways of their choosing. This neighbourhood, and there is a real risk is the longer and more difficult option. that the process could swallow the But it is the only option that will benefit Square by offering units up for sale to the low-income people who live in existing tenants, thereby removing Uniacke Square today, and who will them from the financial means of low- want to live there in future.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 31 References
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36 Public Housing Risks and Alternatives: Uniacke Square in North End Halifax Personal Interviews
Carvery, Irvine. May 15, 2007. Property Mendes, Joan. May 16, 2007. Director, Manager, Uniacke Square, and former North End Parent Resource Centre, resident of both Uniacke Square and Uniacke Square. Africville. Mortimer, Peter. May 17, 2007. Senior Fleming, John. May 14, 2007. Senior Prop- Director of Community Services. United erty Manager, Metropolitan Regional Way of Halifax Region. Housing Authority, Halifax, and former Property Manager, Uniacke Square. Morton, Tyler. May 15, 2007. Resident, Uniacke Square. Grant, Melissa. May 16, 2007. Commu- nity Relations Worker. Metropolitan Re- Nelligan, Donna. May 17, 2007. Member, gional Housing Authority, Halifax. PEP-Bro Divas, and resident, Uniacke Square. Lambert, Gregg. May 14, 2007. Master of Social Work Student, and long-time O’Hara, Paul. May 14, 2007. Counsellor/ North End resident. Advocate. North End Community Health Centre. Levy, Claudie. May 17, 2007. Manager. George Dixon Recreation Centre. Sloane, Dawn. May 16, 2007. City Coun- Uniacke Square. cillor, District 12, Halifax.
MacDonald, Maureen. May 17, 2007. Smith, Wade. May 14, 2007. Vice-Princi- MLA, Halifax Needham. pal, St. Patrick’s High School.
MacKay, Amy. May 18, 2007. Constable, Symonds, Garfield. May 16, 2007. Retired Uniacke Square office, Halifax Police Principal, Joseph Howe School. Service.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 37