Consultant to report on community care campus
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on April 6, 2022.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
Lethbridge city council has tasked administration with hiring a consultant to conduct a report on a possible community care campus for the city.
Council voted unanimously to approve up to $100,000 with the money coming from council contingencies to procure a consultant to conduct community engagement, create conceptual designs and develop a business case for a community care campus here.
The motion was put forward by councillor Mark Campbell and was approved after hearing input from Community Services manager Mike Fox.
Campbell told council during debate that the consultant would be able to provide the answers to the many questions that exist about a potential community care campus here.
“We had a very vigorous and emotional debate and talk at our SPC on the community care campus. A lot more questions were brought up so that’s what this whole point is about is to let’s find the answers to the questions and I applaud administration,” said Campbell.
“It’s been brought up for 10 to 15 years so it’s nothing new. This is something that’s been talked about for many, many years. This is finally coming to a fruition. It’s time to come to the point where let’s see what makes sense, what works and again it’s important to note that they will be coming back with updates to let us know how things are progressing,” said Campbell.
Administration is being asked to provide regular updates to the Cultural and Social Standing Policy Committee.
At a March meeting that committee voted to recommend council approve the expenditure. At that meeting Martin Thomsen, general manager of Community Social Development, said the idea has been bantered around for years under different names and interpretations.
A community care campus, said a report presented to the SPC, “refers to either the integration or co-location of housing and homelessness resources (along with other pertinent services such as mental health and substance use supports) as a method to end chronic homelessness and enhance accessibility of services for clients.
“With the investigation of a community care campus being included in city council’s 2022 action plan, it is apparent there is a growing need for synergized, long-term accessibility of services for clients,” said the report.
Fox told council “currently Community Social Development isn’t doing any outreach for information or further gathering of information. There is really lots of different camps on the idea of a community care campus. There are those who are against it and those that are for it.”
He also said there are questions about what type of services would be co-located at such a campus, and about other matters.
Fox said a preliminary report provided more questions than answers including about the definition of a “made for Lethbridge” community campus. Another question is even if such a campus makes sense for the city.
“Those are some of the answers that this report would dig into.”
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So we hire a consultant as no one in our expensive administration has a clue. Basically diverts responsibility for any decision. Normal procedure for years. Why would we expect any different