City exploring options for emergency overflow shelter

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on December 3, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

The Cultural and Social Standing Policy Committee of city council on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution calling for administration to work with Alpha House and the province to identify options for a four-to-six month emergency overflow shelter.
The committee also called on administration to evaluate and report on the feasibility of using the Civic Curling Centre or Park N Ride as a temporary sober shelter and to explore and report on any other possible locations for such a shelter.
A third part of the resolution called on administration to develop a business case for a Community Care Campus.
Monica Loewen and Josh Marti, co-chairs of the Social Services Integration Group (SSIG) along with Director of Community Services Mike Fox, discussed with the committee the needs for a temporary overflow shelter.
SSIG has been tasked with identifying appropriate criteria and locations for social services in the city. It’s made up of community members from various sectors in Lethbridge including Streets Alive Mission, Alpha House Society, London Road Neighbourhood Association, Westminster Village Association, the Downtown BRZ, Reconciliation Lethbridge Advisory Committee, the Chamber of Commerce, Amazing Grace Community Church, Evangelical Free Church, the soup kitchen, the City and several businesses.
According to the submission presented to the committee, the Lethbridge Shelter and Resource Centre is continuing to experience outbreaks of COVID-19 and capacity has been reduced due to social distancing requirements set by the province.
While client numbers decrease in warmer weather, those numbers increase substantially when the weather worsens and recently occupancy has been as high as 251 per cent of capacity, said Fox’s submission.
The submission stated that with COVID being an ongoing problem and extreme weather likely to hit Lethbridge, the lack of shelter space is a critical issue for the health and wellbeing of the city’s vulnerable.
On Nov. 17, the province announced emergency funding to help 14 communities provide additional shelter capacity with Lethbridge being among them. Because emergency funding is restricted to existing shelter providers, that means in Lethbridge the shelter must be operated by Alpha House and be open to all clients, not just those who are sober, said the submission.
The SSIG has made several recommendations to City administration to help address concerns.
These include that administration work with Alpha House and the provincial government to identify immediate options for an emergency shelter for four to six months. It’s recommending the use of hotels and motels for up to 100 clients since these facilities wouldn’t require development permits and/or rezoning and could be operational quickly.
SSIG is also recommending that the Civic Curling Centre or Park N Ride facility be used as a temporary site for a sober shelter while a permanent site is identified.
Thirdly, SSIG is recommending administration develop a business case for a community care campus.
The submission said that since October the city shelter has been over capacity with an average of 120 clients every night with as many as 60 people sleeping rough outside the shelter and in other areas.
The submission calls on council to be open-minded about the location of a temporary shelter since future rezoning would require a public hearing.

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