No easy solutions as encampment outreach continues
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on August 20, 2022.
Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
A group of people sit among belongings under the shade of a tree Friday at the Civic Centre. The City of Lethbridge says it is continuing to provide outreach to those suffering from homelessness in the community.LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com
The City of Lethbridge says it is continuing to provide outreach and services to people facing homelessness.
To date, the Clean Sweep Program (CSP) has responded to 150 calls of encampments throughout the city, with approximately 95 per cent of the smaller encampment calls being successfully resolved.
“We work with all of our different service providers and different stakeholders to try and make sure that residents of the city are cared for,” said Michael Fox, director of community services.
Fox said city council approved extra funding to provide additional outreach and some security in some of the larger encampments where service providers are doing outreach.
The City said in a release that there are no easy solutions to address encampments and the complex social issues around homelessness but there are successful connections happening to support the vulnerable populations.
During encampment responses, the CSP team works with individuals living in encampments to determine items that they want to keep or throw away, sometimes over the course of several days.
The release states that since July, the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Outreach Mobile Team (OMT) has been providing ongoing outreach support and service referrals to the vulnerable population, specifically those living in encampments.
“We’ve also been able to help people reunite with different families or friends,” said Fox.
He said another measure they have taken to help people facing homelessness is by utilizing a couple of sea-cans to store the belongings of those who are detained by the Lethbridge Police Service due to criminal activity in encampments.
“The city doesn’t want their belongings to be stolen, so we gather their belongings, we provide a ticket to the person who has it, we photograph the belongings, we take a list of what is put into the sea-cans and store them,” said Fox.
He said the reason they decided to use sea-cans is because they are accessible to those providing outreach to be able to return the items later, and they are secure.
“When that person is not detained any longer and want their belongings back, then we arrange for them to get their belongings back so it’s more of a safekeeping while somebody is moved offsite,” said Fox.
In addition, the following have been instrumental in providing outreach, information and referral services during encampment responses:
– CMHA’s Community LINKS Integrated Coordinated Access program
– CMHA’s Diversion Outreach Team (DOT) for transportation services
– Alpha House – Stabilization Support Outreach
– SAGE Clan
– Indigenous Recovery Coach Program (IRC)
– Alberta Health Services – Addiction and Mental Health Outreach
This outreach work – along with the contributions from many other organizations including Alberta Alliance Who Educate and Advocate Responsibly (AAWEAR), LPS Watch, MyCityCare, Streets Alive and Sweetgrass Youth Alliance - continues to make a difference for individuals experiencing homelessness in the community.
To date, coordinated encampment responses have occurred along the north side of 2 Avenue North; along the Kitchen Centre boulevard near the Stabilization Shelter on June 1, July 6 and July 7; and at the Civic track and surrounding area on July 14 – 15, July 28, Aug. 3 and Aug. 10.
For the week of Aug. 5 to 11, 2022, encampment response outcomes included five people connected with CMHA’s Outreach Mobile Team (OMT) to complete referrals to Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programming, while an additional two individuals were being re-contacted by OMT on Aug. 12.
A total of 341 interactions were completed by CMHA’s OMT and Community LINKS including intakes, referrals, and rapport-building (including 120 at the Civic area).
CMHA’s Diversion Outreach Team transported individuals to services including the Shelter, Chinook Regional Hospital, Streets Alive, private residences, and others.
A total of 1048 needles and 40 pipes were disposed of to date (during coordinated encampment responses since June 1).
Aug. 10 saw 74 needles and three pipes disposed of from the Civic track area.
On Aug. 10, the CSP removed 1,130 kg of debris (one full dumpster and one full dump trailer of debris) from the Civic track area.
Weekly cleanups at the Civic track area will continue. City Council’s approval on Aug. 9 for administration to explore the possibility of an interim Sober Shelter at the former Civic Curling Centre which could offer an alternative option for those staying in encampments.
As part of the process, community engagement will be conducted this fall.
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I Have a lot of empathy and compassion for the “truly homeless”. Through bad luck or bad choices or bad circumstances they find themselves in an impossible situation. I applaud the efforts to help these people. I’m more than OK with my Tax dollars helping them. I really am.
What I suspect though is. Many of the people that are causing the problem, are not the “truly homeless”, they are the ones preying on the homeless. They are preying on the rest of us. They take take take and never contribute. Live in a cycle of crime -> drugs -> crime. They destroy local business and lower property value. Downtown is a scary place most of the time and Galt Gardens might as well be written off.
Although I appreciate the city efforts, I do not agree with the lenght of time it is taking to end this take over of our park, which to date I am sure has cost the city taxpayer over $350,000 when you look all the paid non-profits involved, the Clean-sweep. the extra city employee man hours and the extra security employed. That is not including what it will cost to repair all the damage done in the area and the grass and foilage.
Legally, we have met all the legal requirements under the Charter Section 7 that shows efforts were made to provide these people with safe shelter and the police should move in an evict them now, arresting those that will not move and ending the high costs that the Lethbridge taxpayers have suffered during a periods of uncertainty of what social programs the rest of us law abiding citizens will lose to pay for this.
These people have no comprehension of where money comes from and I believe they think we can just print more if we run out!
The truly homeless have received the shelter they needed and support programs and all that is left are the law breakers that will not obey our laws and use their tents as a base of operations to commit their crimes.
I for one am going to the city to demand all of the costs to the city, which is the city taxpayer, this event has cost, every cent and will hold that against the administration and council, demanding changes and along with more answers!
I really believe a house cleaning is needed in the city administration and it is time the citizens demanded accountability!
The attempts were made to house these people, now it is time to take back our parks, both Galt Gardens and Civic Center!
There is an easy solution, but no one has the guts to use it!
Lethbridge did their due diligence to house them, the ones remaining can easily be arrested and fined, removing them, posting people to secure the area to make sure they do not try to set up again there or anywhere else. Give them a free ticket back home to BC, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Cranbrook, Saskatoon, Hobema, where ever someone shipped them here from!
After walking by this weekend and seeing the destruction and garbage, it looks like a slum! It speaks volumes as it sits nexts to City Hall and the LSCO which is ran by pro-SCS and ex-Councilor Myashiro. Looks good on him!