Halifax regional council’s mobile shower pilot project started as a well-intentioned idea to provide hygiene to people who are homeless.

A six-stall shower trailer was set up in a field in Dartmouth, ready to use, last November.

But in the month it was open, it was never used.

A new report written by Jo Parker, the program co-ordinator of Mainline Needle Exchange in Halifax, examines the reasons the project failed and makes recommendations for making such a service more accessible to the population it’s meant to serve. 

Project ended early 

The project was approved in September 2021, and was meant to run for nine weeks at a