Daybreak reveals no easy fix for Galt Gardens
By Lethbridge Herald on August 4, 2023.
People are seen with their belongings after an encampment cleanup began Thursday morning at Galt Gardens.
Herald photo by Al BeeberThis story is the first in a series that will run over the next days, as the Herald takes an on-the-ground look at the issues of homelessness, addiction and crime affecting the city’s downtown.
Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
People huddle under tents, or near the pergola, they slump on park benches or lay on hard concrete, fentanyl and meth pipes in their hands, butane cans nearby.
Garbage and discarded clothing are strewn everywhere from tables to the grass throughout the park. A man sits nearby at Festival Square watching closely as a reporter and a city councillor survey the scene, a person with a distinct resemblance to someone who a reporter saw recently dealing drugs downtown.
About 30 people are in Galt Gardens on this morning before dawn, shadowy figures who are either unconscious or lulling out of consciousness after inhaling their choice of drugs, mostly likely methamphetamine or fentanyl. One person lays flat in the seating area near the space used as a stage, barely responding when a police officer later tries to rouse him.
Others can be seen semi-standing in a slouching position, which a reporter is told is the effect of fentanyl on an addict’s muscles.
The base where the Cenotaph once stood before being moved to City Hall is covered with garbage and discarded clothing of varying sorts.
One person, the only one actually moving, methodically wanders around the southwest corner of Galt Gardens picking up litter and carrying it to garbage cans.
This is Galt Gardens, a park that is the subject of a contentious debate over public safety.
A proposal to look into the feasibility of building a fence around the perimeter was recently shut down by city council in a narrow 5-4 vote. Before that official business motion presented by mayor Blaine Hyggen and deputy mayor John Middleton-Hope was discussed at council’s last meeting, a large and vocal protest was staged outside City Hall.
Opponents suggest the fence would stigmatize and discriminate against park users.
Others feel money spent on fencing would be better used to provide housing for those who need it, housing being a provincial jurisdiction.
Galt Gardens was donated to the City of Lethbridge by the Galt family in 1909 and has long been the site to public events and gatherings of many types, casual strolls in daytime and evening, or just quick lunches.
Now it is a home to the unhoused, a place where tables are covered in filth, where the bathrooms by dawn have to be fastidiously cleaned by City workers who deploy at the park around 6:30 each and every morning.
That team of employees – 10 on Thursday – spends a couple of hours in Galt Gardens with pails, cleaning supplies and tongs to pick up needles and other debris. They spread out across the park before the Clean Sweep team hits the park as the sun rises.
Each day they have a huge job, cleaning up the enormous amount of detritus left behind for others to see during the day.
The cost of the cleanup efforts is hard to determine because according to the City, it fluctuates daily “as there are many variables, just as there are in any City park or facility.
“City staff perform a variety of tasks, comprised of planned and reactive activities. Daily planned activities include garbage collection, washroom cleaning and litter pickup. The park is mowed once per week and trimming is performed two-three times per season. Other planned activities that occur less frequently, include tree pruning, furniture inspections, shrub bed maintenance and irrigation startup/winterizing. Reactive activities take place when repairs are needed,” said the City in response to a question about how much that daily cleanup costs.
“These include graffiti removal, irrigation repairs, furniture repairs and responding to broken tree branches. Staff also prepare the park before a special event and clean up after the event. Parks & Cemeteries staff work collaboratively with the encampment team and the rest of Community Services to meet the changing needs of the community. Staff’s ability to pivot as needed, helps to ensure parks and green spaces are welcoming for everyone to enjoy,” added the City.
A fence, which would be bolted into the concrete sidewalk around the perimeter of the park, would allow Galt Gardens to be closed at night for the safety of all users including the homeless, says Middleton-Hope. It would not impact any of the trees along the perimeter of the park, he said, referring to a letter read to council when it addressed the OBM.
And while Middleton-Hope acknowledges there would be displacement of some unsheltered people, the hope is with increased shelter space to be available in north Lethbridge where the Blood Tribe Department of Health now runs the city shelter, then many of those park users would conceivably migrate to that area where they will be able to get a safe place to sleep and also gain access to the addictions and other services that will be available to them.
“Cities across North America have got this done and the reason that they do it is precisely because of this type of abnormal behaviour. What they want to do is ensure the safety of the park and that includes for anybody. This isn’t safe for these people to be here overnight anyway. So at the end of the day, we’re hoping to create an environment in here where normal users are allowed to come into this park and enjoy it. Whether we have soccer in the park or whether we have people playing bocce ball or there’s a lemonade stand, there’s the kids playground, there’s the spray park, there’s the pergola,” Middleton-Hope said.
“Don’t come through here at night,” he noted because there’s a very real chance people can get robbed or beaten up.
“A good portion of the property crime in Lethbridge is caused by drug addicts. They’re stealing property so that they can get money to buy drugs. The violent crime is predominantly drug addict on drug addict or the people that are living on the street to protect their drugs, to protect their property. That’s where the violent crime comes from.
“Yes, there is other violent crime and let’s not diminish the fact that we’re one of the highest centres in western Canada for domestic violence,” added Middleton-Hope.
“But at the end of the day, the reality is we have violent crime in this city but a lot of the violent crime we have is this. He’ll rob her or she’ll rob him or they’ll rob somebody else.”
He said the present Galt Gardens situation is an improvement over it was in the past, pointing to last year when the city allowed encampments there.
“There were 10 or 15 tents in here every night,” he said.
“The purpose of the park is to create a safe environment and that’s for everybody. So we put up fencing, we make sure that the public is protected, the park is clean.”
On this particular day, only four tents/structures are present in the park before a scheduled camp cleanup begins, one against the wall of the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. Out front, a boarded up window space greets visitors to SAAG. Near that same wall just a few months ago, a body was discovered early in the morning which attracted not only onlookers wondering if they knew the person but also a throng of media.
Some days, says the councillor, there are as many as 20 sleeping structures visible in the park.
He says other communities have built fencing around public spaces for the same reason he wants to – for safety. And that’s for the safety of the homeless themselves, says the councillor, who reiterates that park inhabitants are at risk of violence from each other.
“It’s not safe for these people to be here” overnight, says the councillor during a pre-dawn stroll through the grounds.
A police officer who shows up later points to a pile of branches and mulch piled up on an transformer box, behaviour caused by the use of methamphetamine which has users almost obsessively engaging in such activity.
Recently, a reporter saw that same behaviour in an alley where a person was sweeping away a section of driveway, totally consumed by his activity, oblivious to others or anything else around him.
Most activity in Galt Gardens involves ingestion of methamphetamine and fentanyl with only a few alcohol users anymore, said Sergeant Ryan Darroch of the LPS downtown policing unit just before he tries to rouse an individual laying on the ground. Fifteen years ago the park was Ground Zero for alcohol use but now booze is too expensive and meth is what most users are taking.
There aren’t many needle users left, either with addicts now more often inhaling meth or fentanyl. They’ll put a coat over themselves, said Darroch, and use enough to overdose, passing out in that position. So police check on them to make sure they’re still breathing.
At the north wall of SAAG along a newer addition, police sometimes come across fires in a concrete trough that basically is formed by a sidewalk leading to a door with a short raised wall.
“This was not what the intent was” when the Galts donated the land, said Middleton-Hope who is a popular target of some on social media.
“One of the ways in which you deal with abnormal behaviours is you create normal behaviours so that’s one of the reasons why we’ve got the playground going in, we’ve got the spray park, we’ve got the extension on SAAG. But you can’t just put those in and expect people to use them. You have to create an environment where they’re going to use and unfortunately the environment down here is not hospitable to normal users, it’s hospitable to abnormal users.
“These people that come into the park, sleep here and do drugs and leave refuse and so forth, those are referred to as abnormal users. And that’s the kind of problem we’re dealing with and it’s an ongoing issue,” said Middleton-Hope.
With a long law enforcement career behind him including time spent as Chief of Lethbridge Police Services, Middleton-Hope knows the issues of homelessness and addictions are complex and there is no easy fix.
But he also believes all members of the public deserve to feel safe – including the homeless whose plight, despite what some may believe, he does have compassion for – and the activities of a small number of people are impacting that safety for all including the vulnerable who sleep, do drugs, overdose and sometimes die in the park from their addictions – deaths the possible drug dealer getting into the back seat of a taxi at Festival Square may not care about as he finally leaves the area still eyeing the two unfamiliar faces standing on the edge of the park.
“If we don’t control access and egress, then what?,” asks the councillor.
“If we don’t put fencing up, this won’t go away,” he says.
It’s a question that may yet come up again in council chambers at some point.
47-46
A well stated picture of the park first thing in the morning and it continues throughout the day with 25-40 scattered around in groups.
There is a missing bench where there was a fire the damaged the large tree and burned the grass completely to the roots in the NW corner and several other damaged trees, some from fire and others from tearing off branches and limbs. The park buildings are slowly being destroyed to the point they will need major renovations.
My early relatives helped build that park and celebrated many events in that park!
It is not going to help building a fence around the park, because they will find ways to go under or over the wrought iron fence as they have in other areas downtown. You will push the into the fronts and backs of businesses where they continue to damage their properties, urinate and defecate, throw their garbage and clothing and tag the walls and break and enter or just break windows and damage the property.
If I acted in such a manner when I was their age, I would be put in jail in the basement of the old police station or charged/fined.
Laws are put in place to deter people from performing these acts, and they are there, but they do not enforce them. The new ‘woke’ crowd demands less police and police action and as does harm reduction.
Harm reduction has completely failed, proven a failure by 20 years of trying it in BC and it is time we got back to what worked in the past the best: police enforcing the laws but now using the drug courts to prevent criminal records, effective treatment programs and using the Compassionate Intervention Act to get people into treatment before they kill themselves on the drugs.
What humane society stands back and watches young people slowly kill themselves, doing drugs that leave open sores and destroys bone and muscle so they walk like they are senior citizens, hunched over? What is worse we supply them with all the paraphernalia to do so! Is there no humanity left?
Laws are put in place to protect the addicts from themselves and the public! Lethbridge local tax dollars from your property taxes are paid out over $14 million annually because of these issues and tens of millions more poured into this city by your Alberta tax dollars, not including the federal money.
BC pours billions into the issue every year and the non-profits in that province built up over the years are a billion dollar industry, with no end in site!
It is cheaper and more humane to get these people into treatment and off the streets by far!
I watched people on a blanket at a recent event in Galt Gardens where many of my walks have seen urine, feces and needles in that exact spot and here is a man with two infant children on a blanket in that same spot.
Rarely do I see anyone using the spray park on these hot days that are not the homeless, yet we are blowing $662,000 on a palyground that we know will get destroyed, graffitied and possibly burned ( as the park bench was ) by addicts.
Stop putting bandaids on the wound and start dealing with the people doing the damage.
The non-profits and criminals making money don’t want this to end because they will lose money and their jobs so they will push for it to continue, as we have seen.
We allow a couple hundred people to destroy our city while costing tens of millions of our tax dollars, while the price of everything goes up and our services are slashed.
Wake up people!
If you think you are helping the addicts by watching them slowly kill themselves in a painful manner with no quality of life you are wrong and a sadist!
VERY well written! There is so much insanity (or is it?) driven by money. The tax payers pay for this, someone gets richer and people die! I agree with you wholeheartedly. And what does our city do? They do like every other city has done (and failed miserably) by trying to house these people in the state they’re in. In their drugged state of mind, do destructive even violent actions, and we think a house will solve everything. I suggest those who have voting capabilities on housing, that they put it all a block away from each of their homes, so then they may be able to understand what happens. Sobriety first, homes second.
Hard to change the brainwashed leadership that believe that just because other cities endure it we should. I call Lethbridge the ‘killing fields’ and the only way to end this is to get these people into effective treatment programs. Vancouver has proven, even Alberta, with both having over 70% of fatal overdoses where the addict resides, that housing addicts untreated is a death sentence!
Addicts that I spoke with who tried to stay clean and are no longer with us repeatedly stated that the enablers who supply all the drug paraphernalia and the safe consumption sites make it very hard to stop because they are everywhere, bringing paraphernalia right to you on the streets, with food and clothing also brought right to you on the streets.
Add to that the people always hanging out on every area downtown willing to get you high and it is impossible.
The other insane thing is that people not addicted have gone into a jail to serve their time and come out addicted. How in Hell do you get addicted in a what is supposed to be a ‘secure’ facility.
We need to make some major changes to end this and wake-up that it is costing us financially, but more importantly, that people are dying by our mistakes!
Anyone that believes that harm reduction works with the best example it is a failure after 20 years in BC has a severe case of tunnel vision and brainwashing or is a criminal or someone making money off of the crisis.
It is time the judicial and penal systems got their acts together and the feds wake-up and get proper legislation in place and shut down the killing machines they call ‘safe’ consumption sites. There is nothing safe about them! People walk out and die within blocks after using them, proven multiple times in Lethbridge where one didn’t even make it out of the parking lot before dying!
Ask LPS members on patrol how many people they had to administer Naloxone to addicts who had just left the Lethbridge SCS when it was open, all within 1 block! People have died in these sites and if you have observed the sites in Vancouver DTES, you know that many die with yards after leaving those sites. Very few ever get treatment from going to those sites, they are going there to get high!
At some point there will be lawsuits, even accusations of genocide from all the people who have died. The First Nations communities have been hit hard, wiping out almost a whole generation and it wouldn’t surprise me that 10-20 years down the road they rise up and sue the government.
Harm reduction is a failure and cutting police from the crisis has only allowed organized crime and gangs to flourish and increase their numbers.
Go back to what worked the best, with a tough stance on drugs and drug use, using drug courts and effective treatment.
And to the people who say you can’t force addicts into to treatment and have it work, you are wrong and programs backed up with a tough stance on drugs in the southern US, have proven since 2013 it works.
The treatment must be 12-24 months, depending on the individual, dealing with ACES, PTSD, or what has caused the addiction, with relapse training, education upgarding and job placement that is coupled with volunteers who meet with the recovering addict for a few months of their job placement to make sure they don’t need assistance.
Interestingly, there is a rumor of a shelter supposedly going somewhere North Walmart, no idea if true or not (honest, I have heard nothing) The interesting thing is people are up in arms already. Which is a clear demonstration, once again, people only care if it affects them. As long as someone else is getting shafted this place stays silent, in all the countries I have been in, all the cities I have lived in, Lethbridge is truly one of a kind!
You’ll have to figure out on your own whether you think thats a compliment or not!
“The rise of indignation from politicians regarding safety and security is directly proportional to the problem they are causing by doing the same thing over and over, hoping for different results! The “hope” (pun not intended) is to try to distance yourself from the stupid decisions as quickly as possible even though you are supporting them”
Homelessness and addiction go hand in hand. Often, addiction is, a result of homelessness. Canada has a huge problem with a lack of affordable housing, and worsening greatly with an ever increasing population. It’s not just Galt Gardens, many folks in Alberta are now being forced to live in their vehicles, if they have one. And all the while the gap between the rich and the poor increases making for a very, unequal society with all of its problems…..in the big picture.
“The relationship between substance use and homelessness is complex. While rates of substance use are disproportionately high among those experiencing homelessness, homelessness cannot be explained by substance use alone.”
https://www.homelesshub.ca/about-homelessness/homelessness-101/causes-homelessness
Exactly who is in the park can you see? They are gang members and addicts rather than the really homeless. The item you advise us to read is being promoted by a biased non-profit.
You are right, it is very complex, we treat it like its not! We proceed with full knowledge that offering sympathetic and accomodating service to those that do not want to rehab and live the criminal life is somehow spirtually fulfilling to some?. We move forward with a directed purpose and kill livelihoods, jobs, businesses districts, and entire residential areas as if its not complex. Why? find a link for that!
However, addiction is frequently the reason why people are unable to make their payments and become homeless. Some people are actually homeless, not as a result of addiction but rather due to unfortunate circumstances.
Housing shortages around the country are made worse by Trudeau’s mass immigration policies, and neither his attitude nor his claim that the government is not in charge of housing is helpful.
It baffles how the Mayor and the decision makers think the shushing the homeless off or fencing them out is going to have a positive affect in this city. The homeless just migrate to another spot. They are always going to migrate to places that are more public, more inviting or with access to the sweets they need, ( preferred food for drug addicts eg. Slushies) like gas stations. 8th str and 6th ave is getting very bad. Police and ambulance crews almost daily there. People can’t even go for a walk around the block without literally taking their lives in to their own hands.
If the city and the mayor want to stop the problem, swallow your distinct high handedness against the homeless and use one of your empty buildings yo create a space for them. Put a food kitchen in, hygiene center, put policing and health workers to work minimally there ( instead of them having to keep rushing on calls for over dosed street people and disturbance issues, it’s a true resource gobbler) and help the citizens and the homeless to coexist with people getting hurt anymore.
I am not greatly educated but it is not rocket science. Stop ignoring them and shoving them under the rug and start figuring out ways to better handle our resources that you all cry about all the time.
This city block has EMS and police daily, sometimes two and three times a day. In one block. Imagine how much resource that is taking up. I think it would be much cheaper to do what I have suggested and save people’s tax dollars a bit better.
Something truly needs to be figured out. Or this city will be nothing to write home about, very soon. In one block I have seen an increase in the homeless in the last 3 weeks by at least 50%. Wondering where they got shuffled from.
Signed,
Fed up and tired of constantly having to watch my back while going to my vehicle.
The type center you speak of will increase the issues exponentially, and you will see an increase in your area. Phoenix attempted something bigger, but similar to what you suggest and the city was going to build a complex by the shelter in a 19 acre area until they realized how badly it failed and dramatically increased issues.
There have been many new faces showing up in this city, some from gangs/organized crime moving their ‘assets’ around the province for events and you will see an increase for Whoop-up Days, just like we have seen for that past few years. Organized crime and gangs have grown in strength and numbers during this crisis, making it harder to end this and until we start allowing police to do their jobs, without the ‘defund police’ crowd and get the Crown to get their act together, we will not see a dramatic change.
Read above comments for what will work and is proven to work. Also, a camp is opening soon on the Blood Tribe community taking 10 people at a time, in attempts to get them off the streets and into treatment. Alvin Mills has pushed for this and it will help until we get enough treatment beds available and stop enabling the addicts.
Police need to start enforcing the laws that are already in place to see change as well.
I am sorry but your ideas of the type of center you propose will only magnify the issues.