• N.S. mother vows to finish late son’s fight for improved income support for tent residents

  Source: Nova Scotia - Halifax & Regional News
  Date: 2026-09-09 20:16:42.0
  Tags: [Nova Scotia, Housing, Social Services, Justice, Governance]

  Following an August 5, 2026 Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruling establishing that a tent qualifies as accommodation for income assistance, the Nova Scotia provincial government updated its legislation and disability supplement regulations to exclude people living in tents from accessing enhanced financial support. In response, the provincial NDP introduced a private member's bill titled Bradley’s Law—named after Bradley Lowe, a 30-year-old who died at a Halifax encampment in 2023 during a legal challenge over income assistance rates—to mandate that financial support be provided regardless of housing status. Human rights lawyer Vince Calderhead has petitioned the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission to investigate the provincial policy change as a human rights violation.

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• ‘Cruel’: Legal community questions N.S. move to exclude tents from higher income assistance

  Source: Nova Scotia - Halifax & Regional News
  Date: 2026-09-01 21:51:03.0
  Tags: [Nova Scotia, Housing, Social Services, Justice]

  Following a Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruling on August 5, 2026, which established that tents count as legal accommodations for unhoused individuals to access higher income assistance, the provincial government revised its income assistance regulations on August 25, 2026. The regulatory amendments repealed the definition of a "home" and limited it to residential units with a kitchen and bathroom or municipally-approved rooming houses, effectively excluding tents from enhanced support rates. Human rights lawyer Vince Calderhead and Dalhousie Legal Aid criticized the change as discriminatory and harmful to unhoused individuals, while the province stated the amendments provide clearer and more consistent eligibility criteria.

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