Ottawa is calling for a 34-hectare parcel of federal land sitting vacant in Dartmouth, N.S., to be used for temporary modular housing as the number of people experiencing homelessness continues to rise.

The Halifax Regional Municipality approved a permanent housing development last year in Shannon Park, but construction has yet to begin on that project. Ottawa says the property could serve a different purpose in the meantime.

The land, at the foot of the MacKay Bridge in Dartmouth, used to be hom…