Lethbridge ramping up cold weather supports for individuals experiencing homelessness

Lethbridge is working to ramp up its cold weather supports for individuals experiencing homelessness.

LETHBRIDGE, ALTA. — The City of Lethbridge is preparing to care for people experiencing homelessness and vulnerable individuals as colder weather arrives in southern Alberta.

“We've heard from the community, especially with the first snow fall that there are concerns about what the city and our partners are doing to support the vulnerable. And this is to share that we're concerned as everyone else in the community,” said Andrew Malcolm, community social development supervisor for the City of Lethbridge.

The city is also working to increase its shelter capacity and is in talks with the Government of Alberta and the Blood Tribe Department of Health to potentially expand the Lethbridge Shelter and Resource Centre.

“The Government of Alberta as the operational funder of shelter spaces, the Blood Tribe Department of Health as our current operator and the City of Lethbridge who own the building and the land have been engaged in conversations and those are at a very advanced stage," Malcolm said.

The shelter is designed to fit about 100 people but can house more if needed on especially cold days with high demand.

Currently, it has no way of hosting the more than 450 people experiencing homelessness in Lethbridge.

The city is also getting ready to activate its extreme cold response plan, which would open city-owned and other public facilities to anyone looking to escape extreme cold.

“It basically indicates a call onto the community to open up your facilities to individuals in the community. Whether we're looking at our vulnerable group or other groups we're trying to make sure anyone who's out in the elements has the ability to get reprieve," Luke Palmer, emergency planning and risk supervisor for the City of Lethbridge, said.

In Alberta, an extreme cold warning is only issued if temperatures drop to -40 C with wind chill for two straight hours.

But the city has adopted its own policy which will allow the city manager to declare a cold warning at any time.

“If we're experiencing something here in the city, a extreme cold snap, and our executive side of things is viewing there's a concern in the community, and we haven't met the actual defined thresholds set by Environment and Climate Change Canada, we can actually leverage that and define it as an emergency here in the city,” Palmer said.

The city is also exploring a 24-hour drop-in warming centre to be open throughout the winter.

It would use up to $230,000 in federal funding and run until March 31, 2024.