Funding being sought for overnight comfort centre
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on December 13, 2022.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com City council today will be asked to provide $325,670 in funding to Streets Alive for the operation of an overnight comfort centre.Takara Motz, general manager of Community Social Development, says in her report to council that the Lethbridge Shelter and Stabilization Centre consistently has occupancy pressures during extreme winter weather and no comfort centres currently exist that offer overnight support.
Streets Alive has presented CSD with a proposal calling for the expansion of a comfort centre with public access 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Operations were set to start on Dec. 1 and run until March 31.
The entirety of the budget, says the report, is approved under municipal funds. Of the funding, $225,670 would come from the federal Reaching Home portfolio which would reduce the amount of municipal funding needed for the project with the other $100,000 coming from taxation.
Streets Alive’s proposal has a tiered structure for the overnight comfort centre. Its operation will require increased staffing, security personnel and supplies for basic needs.
In a separate matter, Motz will also be asking council to allocate funding from the Affordable and Social Housing Capital Grant to the Aboriginal Housing Society for the Legacy Ridge housing project.
A recommendation in a report being presented by Motz asks council to approve the allocation of $1.5 million of Affordable and Social Housing Capital Grant funding from the 2022-31 D-32 Affordable Housing CIP project to the Aboriginal Housing Society for the project. Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter 4
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