The province filed a legislative amendment to require that income assistance recipients live in a home with plumbing 18 days after a court ruled a tent counted as a home
To qualify for higher income assistance in Nova Scotia, a home now needs running water and a sewer connection.
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The province filed the legislative amendment on Aug. 25 and it took effect the same day. It rewrites the provision the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal interpreted on Aug. 7, when it ruled that Bradley Lowe’s tent was his accommodation.
Lowe died Dec. 15, 2023, of an overdose in a tent in front of Halifax City Hall, after camping at Victoria Park. Two months earlier he applied to move from $380 a month to the enhanced rate of $974, saying he had a disability and owned his tent. He was denied because he was deemed unhoused.
Under the amended rates, a single person on income assistance receives $410 a month without a home and $738 with one. The rate rises to $1,022 for someone with a home who has a disability, is 55 or older or meets other criteria in the regulations.
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