Articles of clothing gather in the United Way office as this colder months are ahead and will be handed out to those in need.
Most of us don’t worry about where we rest our heads to sleep. In many cases around Lethbridge, people face the reality of homelessness.
The provincial government and communities around Alberta are doing their best gathering information in an attempt to end the number of people sleeping on the streets.
Seven cities throughout the province participated in a point-in-time count where volunteers went out around the city to assess how many people were
without a roof over their head.
“It’s a snapshot of homelessness in our city. The purpose of the event is to try and capture through that one picture what the scope of homelessness is in our city and how we can best work towards meeting those needs,” said Shauna Cox, Housing First Program Specialist for the city.
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These events are all part of efforts made to see what can be done to bring people into shelters and back up on their feet.
“Within that plan to end homelessness is our strategic plan to provide services and to try and meet the need of homelessness in the city. The end goal is of course to end homelessness within the city of Lethbridge,” said Cox.
The range of the issues in being on the streets can be not having enough money to put food on the table. Lethbridge’s lower cost of living makes it an attractive place to move in the midst of Alberta’s economic downturn.
“Because of what’s happening in our economy in Alberta, Lethbridge is seen as a lower cost living community, so we actually have an influx of communities moving here for that lower cost of living,” said executive director Turdy Carrels of United Way.
Carrels knows awareness needs to be created for these issues and is looking to focus at the younger generation to be more involved. United Way holds events for college and university students to become engaged on what it is like to live in poverty.
Cox said homeless awareness should not be ignored and more community action should increase to help end homelessness.
“The plan to end homelessness is based on the premise that housing is a human right. These are our neighbours, these are our community members
and we want to recognize we share this community with them.”
