Pallet releases 2024 Impact Report
The Village at Pine Tree Park was one of nineteen new Pallet villages built that year.
As the homelessness crisis continues to grow globally and nationally, communities are finding innovative ways to provide emergency shelter, and the U.S.-based company, Pallet, is playing a major role.
Pallet designs rapid-deployment shelters that prioritize privacy, safety, and dignity for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. The shelters are designed for quick assembly and placed within a village setting that includes essential supports. According to its 2024 Impact Report, the company helped build 19 new shelter villages across North America and shipped 944 individual units that year.
Through its Dignity Standards, Pallet ensures residents have access to services like meals, hygiene facilities, transportation, and on-site supports, all aimed at helping individuals transition to permanent housing as quickly as possible.
In Nova Scotia, the provincial government committed $7.5 million in late 2023 to purchase 200 Pallet shelters and establish villages across the province. By the end of 2024, four were up and running — including The Village at Pine Tree Park. This site is a partnership between New Dawn and the Ally Centre of Cape Breton, supported by the Department of Opportunities and Social Development, and serves the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM).
In 2024, homelessness in Canada continued to rise, with more than 119,500 people staying in emergency shelters, up from just over 118,000 the year before. The national Point-in-Time Count indicated nearly 60,000 people were experiencing homelessness on any given night, underscoring ongoing and complex challenges contributing to homelessness. Public concern is also growing: a 2024 Research Co. poll found that more than three in five Canadians viewed homelessness as a major issue in their province, and 79 percent supported expanding temporary housing options for those experiencing homelessness.
“With the crisis of homelessness scaling to levels never seen before across the globe, Pallet is needed now more than ever,” said Pallet’s CEO and founder, Amy King.
“At Pallet, we believe all lives have value and people DO recover. In connection with this belief, we begin to raise our voice and use our platform to bring to light the many evolving complexities of this crisis. Homelessness is not just a housing problem – it is a crisis of community.”
The Village at Pine Tree Park reflects this approach. The site includes 35 individual shelters and a central community building with showers, laundry facilities, a shared kitchen, and space for programming and support services. Residents work alongside staff to set and achieve personal goals — whether that’s securing long-term housing, finding employment, or improving physical and mental well-being.
For some, that support makes all the difference. Charles Jackson arrived at The Village in fall 2024 after spending four months living in his car. Within a few months, he was able to move into his own apartment.
“We all need a place to call home,” he said.
Today, there are six villages across Nova Scotia: one in CBRM, one in Kentville, and four in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
The local villages are part of a much larger movement. By the end of 2024, Pallet had shipped more than 5,190 shelters and supported the development of over 135 villages across the United States and Canada since the company’s founding in 2016. Pallet’s vision — a world where everyone can thrive with dignity, safety, and a sense of belonging — is one we share at New Dawn.
“New Dawn’s work is proof that it’s possible to carve out a different way of being and living than the models we’re most often presented with. One where everyone is worthy, beauty — in the places we live, the food we eat, the gatherings we join — is non-negotiable, poverty isn’t a life sentence, and there is, in fact, enough to go around,” said New Dawn’s President and CEO, Erika Shea.
“Each year, we realize more of New Dawn’s vision, and each year, it feels as if we are only just getting started.”
Read Pallet’s full 2024 Impact Report here.
Learn more about The Village at Pine Tree Park here.
Want to support New Dawn’s work? Make a donation here.
