Posted:
(9:15 a.m.)
This coming weekend, Mayor Mike Savage and Chief Jean-Michel Blais will be participating in Shelter Nova Scotia’s Sleep-out for Change on October 5-6.
Shelter Nova Scotia was in need of a location for their fundraising event and, in early September, Chief Blais and Deputy Chief Bill Moore offered up the lawn at the northwest corner of Police Headquarters at 1975 Gottingen Street. Shelter Nova Scotia agreed that this venue provided the ideal location.
“Our support of this initiative relates directly to HRM’s Regional Plan and also to the work of the HRM Public Safety Office in addressing the recommendations related to homelessness and affordable housing in the Roundtable on Violence, which is currently being updated by Dr. Don Clairmont,” said Chief Blais. “Never has the need to address homelessness been more prevalent to us within policing than in the wake of the stabbing of one of our officers outside a Shelter Nova Scotia facility. Our entire community, including police and municipal government, must work collaboratively to address homelessness as well as its underlying causes, including mental health issues and addictions.”
HRP is proud to provide the venue, and Chief Blais looks forward to sleeping outside overnight this weekend to enhance awareness of the realities of those experiencing homelessness, support those raising much needed funds for Shelter Nova Scotia’s programs and services, and help generate discussion on collaborative ways to better address homelessness in HRM. He will be joined by his 10-year-old son, JC; Mayor Savage and other community leaders; two other police officers, Constables Dwight Hennigar and Jeff Winters; and many others.