Streets Alive suspends warming centre while hoping for alternative location
By Ry Clarke - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on January 14, 2023.
With the recent influx of warmer weather, city residents are seeing less snow, but that doesn’t mean concerns about the homeless have melted away along with the ice.During the month of December, the City of Lethbridge and Streets Alive Mission opened the doors of the Mission as a 24-hour warming center to help with the cold snap we saw. But now with warmer weather sweeping across southern Alberta, the Mission and City have decided to suspend the 24-hour warming center as they look for alternative means.
“The purpose of the warming center, right from the beginning, was to make sure that we are saving lives during those bitter cold days that we see in our southern Alberta winters,” said Jennifer Lepko, director of fund development at the Mission. “We know that there is less capacity at the shelter than what we have in regards to people needing a shelter. There is approximately 100 people that are additional to what the capacity at the current shelter is. The purpose of us opening up the warming space was so they could at least come in and warm up and not freeze to death on the streets. We saw a need in those cold days when we were seeing wind chills of -45 and -47, we were literally pulling people who were blue and not breathing into the building and saving lives.”
Now with warmer weather in the forecast, the Mission is looking to re-evaluate the warming setup.
“When the weather did change to the positives, and it became a little milder outside, we saw individuals start to loiter, and some issues arise on the exterior of our building. Not utilizing the service, but coming to the area. It was determined between us and the City that we are not seeing those frigid temperatures that would cause harm to people. We have suspended the warming center, and have moved our services to outreach where we are able to connect with the people on the street and make sure they are taken care of,” said Lepko. “The hope is that we, along with the City, are able to find a temporary location that we can provide a ‘pop-up’ type warming center.”
Understanding the niche they helped fill during the coldest nights, the Mission wants to continue helping but also re-evaluate their process.
“We know it is going to get cold again, we are only in mid-January. We are going to see those frigid temperatures again. We are hoping that we can find a location that is reasonable and more suitable than our current location,” said Lepko. “We are a little concerned because we are struggling to find a location that is suitable for this, but we are hoping that we hear soon from the City so we can get ready.”
Hoping to work with the community and those affected by homelessness, the Mission and City will look for an area that can be temporarily used when needed.
“We don’t want to bring any negativity to any community. We want to be part of the solution and we want to work with the community. Doing what we can to be a part of the solution,” said Lepko. “We are part of the community and that is our focus, we want to make our community better for everyone.” 2
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