By Kendall Worth
Sign at the SEIU Protest Rally re: firing 42 workers at Out of the Cold.
Readers as you may Remember in this post, dated July 12th 2025, I reported on a turn of events in the homeless community in Halifax. Out of the COLD lost their contract for the Modulator Homes in Halifax and Dartmouth. On July 15th, 2025 a protest took place outside of Province House and I was there to gather information as well as to show my support. First I will say that SEIU did a great and wonderful job organizing the protest.
I learned a lot from my attendance at this protest.
My reporting includes what I learned at today's protest, and, concerns I am hearing from my community. Something that was really disturbing, I learned today, is that, when the police arrived, to serve Out of the COLD staff notice, which happened on Tuesday July 8th 2025, (the notice saying that this organization was losing their contract), staff only had 30 minutes to vacate the sites. Apparently, those staff working in Dartmouth, had only 15 minutes to vacate. Out of the Cold staff wanted to take the time to notify their clients that they were leaving and to transition tier clients to a new service provider. However, the police insisted, there was no time for that, or for collecting their belongings before leaving the site.
The community I advocate for through my BLOG, believes this whole thing about Out of the COLD losing their jobs was a joint action of both Mayor Andy Fillmore and Premier Tim Houston. After all both politicians have shown that they have no symphony for the homeless population.
Services offered by the Out Of The Cold staff, are services which are badly needed by the homeless population in our city. According to some, I have been in conversations with today, during the protest rally, both the residents and the staff all being together with one another at these modular homes felt like they were a community of people who looked out for each other. One Out Of The Cold staff person I spoke with today was telling me that she use to work back shift at the Modulator Homes. She told me that her work on back shift included getting bedtime snacks ready for the residents and occasionally staying up with the residents watching late night movies. This staff person told me it was a pleasure working there. Also while attending today's protest there were discussions about how Out of the Cold has experiences with working with the homeless population in Halifax, over a long period of time. After all this organization ran Shelters in Halifax even before the modular homes got built in 2021. The city and the province outright let go of experienced workers in the homeless field.
So what is next?
There is concern within in my community that if the residents are ordered to vacate and move, and with our city still in a housing crises, plus with Shelters being full where are the residents going to go after vacating the sites? There is also concern about how the new service provider is going to run the place.
The demands are either the province and city re-instate Out of the Cold contract, or the new service provider hires on all those workers who lost their jobs, and rehires them with their collective agreement in place. Otherwise there is concern about how the homeless living in those modular homes are going to be treated moving forward.
What is next? - Wait and see!
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Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.
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