N.S. Court of Appeal says province can’t deny people in tents enhanced income support

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that the province cannot refuse enhanced income support to unhoused people living in tents.

The unanimous ruling by a panel of three judges overturned a Nova Scotia Supreme Court decision last year that found Bradley Lowe did not meet the eligibility requirements for enhanced income assistance because he lived in a tent.

The judges’ ruling said the province’s income assistance regulations relies on the term “accommodations.” But the ruling disagreed with the province’s position that a tent was not considered to be an accommodation, and it said there was no reason in the rules to exclude Lowe’s tent.

“Enhanced rate should be available to persons living in circumstances like Mr. Lowe,” the decision said, which was signed by Justice Michael Wood, with Justices Cindy Bourgeois and Elizabeth Van den Eynden concurring.

“To paraphrase the Supreme Court of Canada … it would be ‘reasonable and just’ to do so given the legislative objective of providing shelter assistance to persons in need.”

Lowe was living in an ice-fishing tent in Victoria Park, a green space in downtown Halifax, when he applied for income assistance in 2023, and was approved for an essential rate of $380 per month, the Appeal Court ruling said.

With the help of a lawyer, he then asked for the enhanced rate of $974 per month because he had medical proof of a disability and he owned his own accommodation — his tent — as per the requirements for the rate.

The province’s Department of Community Services denied his request because he was unhoused, the ruling said.

Lowe died in late 2023, but his family asked his lawyer — veteran human rights lawyer Vince Calderhead — to keep up the fight.

The case wound through the assistance appeal board and landed at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. There, a judge agreed Lowe’s tent disqualified him from the enhanced assistance rate.

Wednesday’s Appeal Court ruling said that was wrong, and ordered the province and the assistance appeal board to pay Lowe’s estate $3,000.

“I am satisfied that the tent owned by Mr. Lowe, and in which he resided, was his accommodation within the meaning … of the regulations,” Justice Wood wrote. “He was, therefore, entitled to receive enhanced rate assistance at the time of his application in October 2023.”

Emma Halpern, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia, said Wednesday’s ruling is a win that recognizes the humanity of the most vulnerable people in society.

“I feel like this is a win for all Canadians in that I really, deeply believe that we are only as healthy as our most vulnerable people,” Halpern said in an interview. “I hope that we will see some ripple effects into other provinces.”

The society became an intervener in the proceedings to argue that women faced particular challenges when living in tents and they deserved to qualify for higher assistance rates. For example, women are more vulnerable to physical or sexual attacks without a locking door, Halpern said.

They are also more likely to work as caregivers or in other roles where they are required to maintain their physical appearance, Halpern said. That costs money.

“You can get back on your feet so much quicker if you’ve not lost your funding and your housing at the same time,” she said.

She said she was particularly pleased to see the court reject the province’s argument that offering more money to women at risk of violence might incentivize them to live in a tent, rather than go to a shelter.

“I’ve never heard of anyone deciding they want to live permanently in a tent so they can get an extra couple hundred bucks a month,” Halpern said. “The reason women are ending up in tents is because there are no beds in transition houses or women’s shelters.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2026.