Housing authority tasked with helping to end homelessness
By Ry Clarke - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on March 15, 2023.
Herald photo by Ry Clarke
Lethbridge Housing Authority CAO Robin James speaks to audience members about the housing continuum and the gaps seen in supportive and transitional housing, during a community education session Tuesday at Casa.When it comes to Lethbridge and the issues that arise here, it is important to stay informed and in the loop.
The Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown BRZ, and City of Lethbridge are working together to bring monthly education sessions to the public related to safety, security and community issues.
Located in Casa’s Community Room, the monthly talks are aimed towards businesses and non-profit organizations located in the downtown, addressing the need for more information and education about initiatives that impact their operations.
On Tuesday, the Downtown Safety Education and Information Session hosted Robin James, CAO with the Lethbridge Housing Authority who spoke about the housing continuum and the stages it takes to go from homeless to housed.
“We are hoping to bring some educational material and perspective on what we are moving towards for the city of Lethbridge in a housing continuum,” said James.
Speaking about initiatives, James had good news to share with those in attendance.
“Starting April 1, we will become the community-based organization tasked to end homelessness,” said James.
“It is our goal to do far more with this community consultation than we have ever in the past, and create a community-based advisory committee and start creating a Lethbridge strategy within the realm of a housing continuum.”
This news follows the announcement James made on Monday that the Lethbridge Housing Authority is receiving an increase of $466,000 to its rental assistance benefit for the 2023-2024 budget, with an included one-time funding of $586,000 to support the communities they serve with rental assistance.
The housing continuum is a range of housing types available in a community from homelessness to home ownership. The continuum starts at homelessness and progresses to emergency shelters, transitional housing, supportive housing, community housing, market housing and finally home ownership.
“We are really hoping that we can start putting more supportive housing into our city and various locations,” said James.
“The more people that can understand what is required for people to successfully transition through the continuum, and for them to be able to come out on the other side as a successful tenant, they need to have the various steps in place.”
James noted the importance of guiding people through the continuum process, and how that spectrum needs more options outside of affordable housing.
“We heard it a lot politically, ‘we need more affordable housing, we need more.’ But actually, what we need if we want to make a dent in this community and in our downtown context, is transitional and supportive housing. That is where we are lacking,” said James. “The reality is the best way to transition people, and for them to be successful, is for them to be able to transition to a continuum.
“We can work together to ensure everyone in Lethbridge who is experiencing homelessness can have a goal of tomorrow looking a little bit better than today looks,” said James.
16-15
Housing the ‘truly’ homeless will not take the criminals off our streets that are up all night destroying our city, breaking and entering, selling drugs and selling sex (to buy drugs for themselves and their ‘husbands’).
They are the ones that refuse to obey any laws and set up encampments in the warmer months to use as their base of operations . . . they will not be housed or sheltered because it cramps their criminal lifestyle that society has allowed to grow by refusing to enforce laws and use deterents.
There is a distinction between the ‘truly’ homeless and these gangs and criminals, some of which have warrants, not carrying any ID and give false names to authorities.
We have conditioned these people to grow in anti-social and criminal behaviours and they have become wild, disrespectful and harmful to the community.
Where is the plan to deal with them?
I believe it was this group that burned the Bow On Tong and Lethbridge Hotel, along with other vacant homes, garages, sheds throughout the city and it is going to grow since we do not have a stragetic plan in plan in dealing with the over 150 criminals . . . this is going to grow this summer because word has got out across western Canada that Lethbridge is building a housing/rehab campus, like one in Phoenix, which attracted 100’s to the campus as well as other centers dumped their homeless on them as well . . . it only created more problems and further destroyed Phoenix.
Many other cities are now moving to enforce loitering, vagrancy and encampment laws, along with moving to involuntary mental health and addiction treatment programs . . . but we are still making the wrong decisions . . . this planned campus over the by Shelter will dramatically increase our issues and increase people on our streets dramatically.
BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME!
Thank you Mr. Ewing. The citizens of Lethbridge deserve the truth, for a change. Why do so many so called adults except being spoken down to like children on this issue? You would have thought that game would have gotten really, really old by now.? Oh I forgot the NDP will save us.
How much did this propaganda session cost the taxpayer I wonder.? Nothing new. Call everything anything, but what it really is.
Mr. Weaselhead recently said at a SACPA session that there are 50-75 boarded up houses on the reserve. We need reliable partnerships with the Blood Tribe council. Until then it is a numbers game ,we can’t win. The tribe Council have dropped the ball on their own people. We are trying to pick up the pieces. Down the road we will get blamed for another residential school like endeavour. People will forget the Blood Tribe Council”s in action and unwillingness to come to the table.
All of this will serve 5% of the total number of people that the establishment calls Homeless. So once the 44 legitimate homeless are homed you are left with 409 (PIT REPORT STATES 90% addicted of 454) that are active users. The infrastructure created by the “Establishment will then service 5% who will take advantage of rehab leaving in this case 388 to roam the streets and do as they wish.
We forecast that we will have 622 by September 2023. Of those 622 it will be a smaller number that are legit homeless, leaving the Establishment to continue to pretend they are winning and all they need is more services! Which will of course invite more people.
Tomorrow is an important day 16th at 1:30PM the Cultural and Social Standing Policy Committee will vote on the only study done by SSIG over 15 months of pretending to study other locations. They will table the Shelter to 5th North as the new area for the nonprofits to provide their multimillion dollar services. Satisfying only one group, the nonprofits
Agreed . . . once again the non-profits will take over a city and dictate to the various governments while draining the taxpayer as they have in others.
More people being dumped here, more people on the streets and more people committing crimes and burning down buildings . . that is just what you forecast . . . and I agree. Too many other cities have proven these campuses to fail. Maybe if they built it on the Blood Reserve they would get them away from the ‘killing fields’ on our streets and all the drugs and there would be more hope for them.
Look forward to seeing you at the Cultural and Social Standing Policy Committee meeting.