Action needed to address homeless situation
By Lethbridge Herald on December 8, 2022.
LH EDITORIAL BOARD
Fires lit in doorways, drug paraphernalia scattered along sidewalks, pedestrians being harassed for money.
This isn’t East Vancouver, it’s downtown Lethbridge.
Our downtown core, which many try to focus efforts and money revitalizing, has some serious problems that need to be dealt with now.
When the drug situation began escalating several years ago, many residents expressed fears about being downtown. Businesses lost customers because of those fears which escalated when the Supervised Consumption Site opened.
While a great idea in theory, in reality this effort to assist drug addicts was poorly executed and eventually was shut down and replaced with a mobile unit adjacent to Alpha House.
The atmosphere downtown changed swiftly with the closure of the SCS. It became clear this facility was the epicentre of the problems businesses, residents and shoppers were enduring.
With the closure of the SCS, relief swept over downtown. It felt safe to walk here again. There were fewer addicts doing their business in Galt Gardens and doorways or near convenience stores. There was less panhandling and less loitering. People felt safe again, especially after dark.
But the pendulum is swinging back in the other direction again. Those who head to work in the dark or leave in the dark don’t feel safe anymore. We know that from our experiences here, where once again some staff are carefully scanning the surroundings before exiting their vehicles enroute to work or before leaving the safety of the building and walking to their vehicles whether parked in our lot or on the street after their shifts end.
The homelessness situation is growing and it’s time for the province to take action. The provincial government – as we’ve often heard and printed in the paper – is the body responsible for shelters.
But some in this community feel city council and administration need to shoulder some responsibility, as well.
Perhaps the city could have diverted some of the money spent on the tent camp cleanups to provide temporary assistance to the unhoused, not all of whom – let’s be realistic – are actually homeless or merely victims of circumstance.
It’s time for government to dispense with the red tape and talk and come up with the funding to deal with the lack of shelter space and transitional housing in Lethbridge.
The city can spend money and time conducting surveys and open houses until the cows proverbially come home but that will not solve the situation we are in.
Some question what housing will do without treatment to help those battling addictions regain their health and the ability to stay off the streets. Housing and treatment supports must go hand-in-hand to get people off the streets and take control of their lives again. The SCS was unfortunately a failed initiative that provided an easy opportunity for drug dealers to prey upon their vulnerable customers outside that facility’s doors.
All levels of government need to play a role in making our communities safe again.
They need to offer the supports that will get the homeless off the streets. Legislation needs to be enacted which will keep drug dealers and other habitual criminals in jail instead of being released shortly after they are arrested to continue wreaking havoc upon our communities.
But contrary to what some advocates may believe, the unhoused and addicted need to make an effort to help themselves, as well.
They need to accept offers of treatment and follow through to the end. They need to be willing to abide by rules when they have the chance to get into supportive housing. Addiction can be beaten as many know; the fight can be a horrible one but it can be won. If addicts want to live and survive, they must be willing to wage that battle until they are victorious.
They must develop the strength to say ‘no’ to predators such as dealers who care only about what little cash addicts can pay for their next fix. And they need help doing so. Providing the supports to give them a fighting chance is a start and we need those supports in Lethbridge.
Our downtown has much to offer – the space that is Festival Square being a prime example – but businesses, workers and visitors are paying the price for government inaction on addictions and homelessness.
Downtown, at least in some areas, no longer feels safe. Our street – 5 Avenue South – and the blocks from Scenic Drive to Stafford Drive are a testament to that.
While more police officers will certainly help, it could take a year to get recruits hired and trained.
Downtown can’t wait that long. It’s time for immediate action if downtown is going to survive, never mind actually thrive.
Those in our community who may shout “NIMBY!” when they read this need to consider something: would they think it’s unfair to feel unsafe walking out their back door or front?
Would they feel it’s fine to deal with daily defecation, sex acts and fires on their properties? If not, they have no business criticizing those who speak out about the issues being experienced downtown by people who work here and contribute to the economic well-being, not only of downtown, but the community itself.
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Your observation of the degradation of downtown and the folly of throwing more beautification money to put lipstick on a pig is valid. The one VERY importrant thing missing from your analyis however is the now documented fact that of 454 ” homeless” 358 are aboriginal. You speak of provincial and civic responsibility but seem to give a modest pass { ” all levels of government…” } to the Feds who throw vast amounts of money into an unaccountable pit of Reserve admin. to provide housing and make no mention of the admin. of the Reserves who supposedly spend that funding for ” their” people.
If your hesitation is based in being labelled ” racist” perhaps you should be looking more to being labelled ” realist”.
There is only one tax payer, whether the money comes from the City , Province or Feds and our pockets are tired of being picked to deal with a problem from a community well funded by our tax dollars which seems immune to scrutiny or criticism.
I get paid more than $100 to $500 per hour for working online. I heard about this job 3 months ago and after joining this I have earned easily $21k from this without having online working skills . Simply give it a shot on the accompanying site…
Here is I started.…………>> https://www.richsalaries.com
Its nice to see an editorial by the Lethbridge Herald that actuallyreports reality, but I have to ask, where have you been? You censored people for years because you were afraid you might be labeled as bias, racist, etc etc. Now that it is affecting your building more and more you now understand, so it raises the question why? Why did it take this long? Had you gotten involved, allowed Letters to Editor to be printed maybe, just maybe, we would not be where we are today? Why the sudden change at the 11th hour…..surely its not because you now are affected badly and didn’t bother reporting others were hurting before this point, because you weren’t?
Don’t get me wrong, I think its great you are reporting what is happening, but where have you been in the last 4 years of this fiasco?
Better late than never. The powers that be a city hall may have had something to do with it. Mostly some councilors who don’t like to take any heat for their waffling.
I appreciate all your efforts Dennis, and your stickability. It is nice to see the Lethbridge Herald finally start opening up in their newspaper. Myself? I’ve pretty much given up on the whole mess, as it would seem common sense has gone by the wayside. The only thing that might work, is if the majority of the citizens in Lethbridge decide enough is enough, and start the “Take Back Our City Convoy”. The downward spiral is absolutely horrific here in our city. It’s time to crank up the pressure, if we have any chance of survival. Lethbridge Herald? Don’t stop now. Crank the pressure up! The truth may set us free. City Council and Mayor? Some of you ran on a platform of “Law and Order” You got my vote because of that platform. Time for action, and I don’t want any “Pass the Buck” statements. It’s our city and you need to do what needs to be done. I read all of Dennis’s comments on the different stories and commentaries here. and I agree 100%. It is the total truth, and what will happen in the future, if we continue down this candy-ass enabling path.
When many were fighting to close the SCS, there were a lot that just gave up, saying it will never happen, but others kept soldering on and we succeeded in getting it closed, no help from Council who were drinking the harm reduction Kool-aid of Stacey Brouque and others, ignored the pleas of downtown businesses and residents. They listened to out of town non-profits!
Don’t give up . . . there are plans in the spring of large protests including our own encampments around City Hall and other facilities. We have not begun to protest!
Since once again we have to live our lives everyday collecting information and researching, giving up jobs, etc. we are not stopping this time until ALL the vagrants are off our streets and we have our city back!
We stopped too short when shutting down the SCS and LOPS and the only way will be to continue until we have our city back!
Mr. Cameron, don’t give up, instead put pressure on the leadership of this city and province.
The editors of the Herald should take note on who is praising them, here. : ()
Just checked my watch, it is indeed the “Woke” hour!
Here is a number that will catch most if not all people off guard and will make you aware of the “crisis” we are now in.
1) Health System does not report success rates of Rehab for Drug Addicts, it reports under a document called Drugs, Alcohol and other addictive substances. In that document you will see claims of 20% success rates but they do not break it down into subgroups. So they have 18% success rate in Alcoholics and Glue/Gas Sniffers and 2% of Hard Drug, Drug addicts.
2) Health System does not follow up after “graduation” to determine how many people are still sober. This is why LOPS and MSTH (shuttle service) did not want the “Homeless” to produce their Alberta Health Card. If 2 days after graduation buddy checks in to shoot up at the Lethbridge OPS then the Province could determine how many actually stayed clean. No one in this $150,000 pyramid scheme wants anyone to know this.
3) 95% of your addicted population will remain in your downtown “forever”. So for instance if you have 300 Addicts and 60 die that year, and another 12 were in rehab then what you will see is 300-60=240-12=228. But it never works that way because every year the number of addicts grows. So in Lethbridges case. We had 88 die over the last 12 months. We had “assumedly” at least 40 go to rehab. Yet we grew from 228 to 320
4) To grow to 320 from 228 you had to have 102 additional addicts come to Lethbridge, OR, Move from Group 2 to Group 1. As time goes on and more brain cells are fried taking hard drugs, the Group 2 individual who could rationalize spending a portion of his money on renting a flop in the drug house suddenly thinks he can do better by just using more and dropping the flop. So he ends up a street dweller. How fast that occurs is if someone is providing homes for free, follow?
5) What is Group 2 or Group 1? Does anyone remember Spearman wanting SCAN here and pronounced Lethbridge had 90 Drug Houses? To run a drug house you need 17-20 people per house to make it worth your while to run one. 90 x 17=1530 These 1530 pay rent to the Crackhouse dealer and they flop there every night. When the SCS closed, the Audit stated that the SCS served 167 people which was exactly as I suspected. Why? Because the 167 are street dwellers and they are always about 10% of the Group 2. 1530+167=1707 10% of 1707 is 170……follow?
6) So Lethbridge Housing declares war on Lethbridge and starts the City Authorities Bypass. As soon as they start housing any of the Drug Addicts/Alcoholics, why would ANYONE in group 2 continue to pay rent to the crackhouse?
And that my fellow citizens is what NO one has a clue about until it happens. Why? no worldly experience to see it first hand and they listen to experts who are part of the $150,000 pyramid.
Nice thing for me…..I am almost done if they continue down this path because if they do, we are farked. You can quote me on that
Doomsday Dennis
Always a prophecy to proffer. Didn’t you prognosticate that the SCS would bring in untold hordes of addicts and homeless, and here we are doubling in its absence. Maybe the SCS was driving away the homeless and your reckless ranting resulted in the opposite of your intended outcome? Hmmmm?
SCS went from 91 people the first year in business to 167 the second year and 280 were on the streets. When the SCS shut down in 2020 the number of people on the streets fell to 150ish.
So yes I predicted it, it happened and now because we are offering housing the numbers will now start to climb. 605 by summer of 2025 and as promised after last nights meeting on Housing I am officially done, and I will be shutting down the site.
All these issues are the most important and destructive thing to happen to Lethbridge and we limit people to speaking for 5 minutes. So any idea does not get the time of day.
So we now live with the non solutions from here on in. I am told all the Lawyers affected are so miffed with the Provinces/Cities Non Plan that they will now form their own group, which should have better luck then mine.
Thank you for taking the time to express your factual concerns. I noticed recently even the Lethbridge Herald entrance fell prey to the addicts building a fire in the main entranceway, scorching the walls in a corner, with garbage and clothing strewn around.
Many, not even Council or the administration have a clue what is actually going on at night downtown, let alone the daytime.
The only way we will see change is by more people like yourself writing these letters to the editor and more importantly, writing letters/emails to Council (email address on the City website) and Nathan Neudorf, Lethbridge MLA East. Don’t bother writing to Shannon Phillips, the NDP is pro-SCS and if they get in, they will force another one on Lethbridge. Their opposition Mental Health and Addiction stated that SCS’s work and science has proven that harm reduction works.
Well . . . if the scientists who said it works looked at the best practical part of harm reduction in the province of BC over 20 years they could easily see it is a complete failure. Every year there are increases in fatal overdoses (almost 200 per month now), addicts, homeless, crime, etc., and now they blame the drug supply . . . precribed drugs are what got many hooked in the first place.
We need to start enforcing the laws, charging people taking a tough stance on illegal drugs, increase our drug courts so they are forced into treatment (which works well with a 83% success rate when ‘effective’ treatment programs are used), zero encampments allowed, zero loitering allowed, more mental health treatment where those who are a threat to themselves are involuntarily put in treatment so they can have a chance at life, and other programs that take back our city, parks, streets and neighbourhoods.
It is costing us over $10 million annually of our local city tax dollars, and tens of millions more of provincial/federal taxpayer dollars.
Many of us who have continued to take back our city, beginning with trying to stop the SCS, to closing the SCS, have continued to fight for our city, but it falls on deaf ears and now we are call ‘frequent flyers’ by administration.
Change will not happen unless the citizens of this city let the leadership know they have had enough and want their city back.
If you want lower property taxes, that is the only way! Write letters, send emails, call the administrators and Council and tell them!
to date, dennis seems to have encapsulated the situation, and even some solutions worth considering, the best. i will continue to add that if we wish to reduce crime related to sustaining the high cost of synthetic drug addictions, we would need to consider at least two additional measures. 1) give out the poisonous pharma drugs for free; will not stop addictions but will mean that addicts will not be stealing to pay for the garbage; 2) replace the toxic pharma substances with free opium and, perhaps, even something like free coca leaf for the speed addicted group; this will also greatly reduce habit related crime, and, it may well have the further effect of more easily weaning addicts away from the far more addictive synthetic products that they are addicted to. As for who pays for the substances, I believe the onus is on the province and the feds.