Fixing city’s social issues will take co-operation

By Lethbridge Herald on October 16, 2021.

Editor:

The biggest issue in Lethbridge is that we have social problems that are making this entire community less safe and less desirable as a place to live. Everything else will come together if we solve the homeless and addiction and drug-dealing issues.

Basically we are perpetuating a cycle of wash, rinse, repeat. We should be seeing less need for shelter beds, food banks, soup kitchens, AHS drug-injection mobiles, Sage Clan, overdose prevention groups, downtown patrols and garbage pick-up, Streets Alive and even A.I.S.H., Alberta Income Supports and Indigenous treaty and other payments.

Instead as Chris Rowley stated, we have institutionalized poverty and addiction. Social services and other organizations exist to keep themselves operating. We can’t revitalize a city area that is unsafe even to walk.

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Places such as the Clubhouse program in Claresholm and Inclusion Calgary are having successes, either verbally or by their behaviour. Just start. No paperwork. No red tape. Housing needs only to be a room with a bed and a lock on the door and access to a bathroom, kitchen and laundry. A job – taking the person, helping them do it and then go home. Finances – not money in the bank once a month: instead pay the rent and bills and help them learn to budget and keep with them. 

Medical – get to a doctor, to ongoing treatment, whatever is needed. 

Social – have leisure activities. These supports need to be at least for five years but for many persons, it will be ongoing for life. It’s a whole retraining to learn to live off the streets and ongoing medical support to live with addiction issues.

It is not about throwing more money at the problem. All the groups and agencies operating in Lethbridge need to meld into one and focus on moving one person at a time off our streets and into productive citizenship. Work yourselves out of a job.

To make a difference, we all need to co-operate. City of Lethbridge, Blackfoot Confederacy, AHS and Alberta government – prove that every child matters. Start today.

Karen J. Collin

Lethbridge