'It's not garbage to them': Advocates enraged as homeless encampment removed near shelter

A homeless encampment which was removed by the City of Lethbridge and members of the Lethbridge Police Service. (Photo courtesy Bill Ginther)

For the past week-and-a-half, city staff and members of the Lethbridge Police Service have been tearing down an encampment of about a dozen tents located near a homeless shelter.

The city says the dismantling is due to safety concerns but those who deal with the vulnerable population first-hand aren't pleased.

“It's almost an unbelievable situation,” said Bill Ginther, executive director of the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen.

“You’ve got people that have no place to go, people that are sent away from Galt Gardens, then to do this, it’s unbelievable.”

When Ginther arrived to work last Tuesday, he wasn’t expecting to see city employees, garbage trucks and LPS removing tents and belongings from the side of the road into the back of a garbage truck. Ginther says for some, their only belongings are in one bag.

“You gather what little you can gather in a shopping cart, it's their belongings," he said.

"Now, I don't care whether its garbage to you and me, it's not garbage to them and if we take that garbage from our eyes and throw that away, that is being very, very disrespectful."

According to Ginther, a group of Lethbridge organizations, stakeholders and surrounding businesses met with city officials last week to find a plan to disperse the encampment.

Ginther said a plan to slowly remove the encampment while helping those living there was discussed, but on Tuesday, Ginther says, that wasn’t the case.

“We left that three hour meeting saying we're going put together a plan, including city officials, a day later, the police swooped in with garbage trucks, following them, stealing everybody's stuff, threw all their stuff in the garbage,” said Ginther.

“We are doing nothing for our homeless population.”

Ginther says city employees have visited the site to remove items three times in the past week-and-a-half.

The City of Lethbridge told CTV News they can’t comment on specific encampments, but say there are a number of factors in play around removing them.

“Encampments being on private property to having illegal activity being done there, for the health and safety of the people that are in the encampment, there are multiple reasons,” said Mike Fox, director of community services with the City of Lethbridge.

Alpha House, which operates the shelter, issued a statement Tuesday afternoon.

"We share the police's safety concerns associated with large groups of encampments concentrated in a single space where it can be difficult to respond to possible substance use overdoses and where other safety issues are less easily addressed," it read.

Alpha House says a long-term solution to encampments would be housing.

“We believe the back-and-forth of encampment setup and removal will continue until we, as a community, address the lack of supportive housing options in the city," read the statement.

A solution, Ginther says, needs to be taken immediately.

“We need to provide to our vulnerable population, we have no housing. We have nowhere for people to go. We talk about money available for long-term housing, supportive housing, show me, I don't see anything,” he said.

The city says discussions and work continues, including with the provincial government, to bring affordable housing to Lethbridge.

“Having more permanent, supportive housing with the right wrap around care, we may be able to make a difference for the people facing housing loss,” said Fox.