NDP commits to public safety and housing in Lethbridge

By Lethbridge Herald on April 29, 2023.

Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

If the NDP is elected in the May election, it will restore $32 million in traffic fine revenue for municipalities to use.

That was one pledge made by NDP MLA for Lethbridge West Shannon Phillips in a joint press conference Friday morning with Lethbridge East candidate Rob Miyashiro.

Phillips laid out a comprehensive plan that will address supportive and transitional housing needs in the city and public safety.

“I live here and I get it,” Phillips said about business’ and residents concerns about safety in the downtown.

“We see the results of ignoring the housing and public safety and healthcare crisis and ignoring the rise in crime every day . . . We see it every day in particular here in the downtown but elsewhere across the city, too,” said Phillips.

The NDP commitment to public safety and housing includes a province-wide hiring of 150 more police officers who will be paired with 150 new support workers.

“This will go some way to restoring the unconscionable cuts the UCP made to policing over the last four years,” said Phillips.

Cuts have also been made to affordable housing programs, said Phillips.

“We need to restore those cuts but we also need to work with the community to make sure that all of our programs meet the needs of what we’re seeing here in the community,” added the MLA.

Specific NDP comments to Lethbridge include:

• Partnering with the city to provide tax abatement for non-profits on supportive housing investments.

• Exploring creative financing solutions to help non-profits take advantage of downtown infill incentives.

• Supporting community planning and integration.

• Building the 42-unit permanent supportive housing project that has been stalled since 2019.

• Addressing the lack of transitional housing and shelter redevelopment.

• Supporting indigenous housing for off-reserve individuals in the region.

Phillips said community planning needs to be supported here which used to come from Social Housing In Action through the city, which gave the community the ability to do long-term planning.

“It allowed for assistance planning and collaboration between the public sector, between the private sector, between the City and the province and the housing authority,” she said.

“There is no question that we need that kind of collaboration and the province can do its part to support that.”

An NDP government will help with the full continuum from shelter to transitional, social housing, supportive housing and full market housing, she said.

“The province has a role to play at every step along the way. Right now we have none of these supports and it shows here in Lethbridge.

“We lack transitional housing, our crisis beds have become transitional housing as people wait for treatment. We have a success in 24-hour care but we have a big gap in transitional housing and like permanent supportive housing, we need to find decentralized and innovative ways to deliver those services,” added Phillips.

She said the shelter area and capacity need to be redeveloped. The province needs to work with the City to find ways to do tax abatement for non-profits on supportive housing investment.

“We need to look for ways we can help non-profits take advantage, for example, of downtown infill incentives,” she said.

She said ways need to be found for the housing authority here “to do what it does best which is manage properties and ensure social and affordable housing integrates into our neighbourhoods so non-profits are able to focus on the service while the housing authority has the funding and direction to do the property management. They are doing a great job so far. We need to help grow those services,” Phillips said.

She said the province needs to work with the housing authority and non-profits to stabilize relationships with landlords.

“We need to give landlords more information and support.”

She said support is needed for Indigenous housing for off-reserve individuals in surrounding communities.

“Homelessness is a southern Alberta-wide issue so let’s solve it regionally.” She said the 42-bed housing project that’s been on the books since 2019 needs to be built.

She said police forces must be properly funded with the tools and resources they need. She said fully funded mental health and addiction services are also needed.

“Municipalities across Alberta lost funding that was used to support funding so the first thing we will do is restore the  $32 million in traffic fine revenue that the UCP cut from municipalities in 2019. That did have an effect on the City of Lethbridge’s budget.

“We will direct that money to be used to fund integrated community and police response teams in urban communities, on transit lines” including the hiring of those 150 police officers to serve places like Lethbridge, Phillips said.

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