LETHBRIDGE -- Lethbridge city councils' community issues committee met Tuesday to discuss an urban issues study concerning the impact of the supervised consumption site on downtown.
Urban Revitalization Manager Andrew Malcolm was one of the researchers involved in the year-long study, conducted by the University of Lethbridge betweenJanuary 2018 and February 2019, that looked at the unintentional impacts the supervised consumption site has had on communities and businesses ion the surrounding area.
“What it does is it provides us with that baseline data and which we can now measure our mitigation programs that we recently got funded through council," Malcolm said.
"It allows us to track what’s happening in the area.”
Malcolm said other cities are envious that Lethbridge was able to collect data before and after the S.C.S opened.
Study Researcher and U of L assistant professor in Health Sciences Dr. Em Pijle described Lethbridge as "a small city with big city problems" that needs additional funding for services like on-demand detox, “for people to strike when the iron is hot.”
Pijle said solving those problems wasn't simple.
“That’s just the beginning of it," said Pijle. "We need accessible housing, (and) we need better more accessible services. There’s a long laundry list of things we need that we aren't getting and it might even get worse.” .
Pijle went on to say there has been an increase of antisocial behaviours in Lethbridge that plays a big role in the drug crisis, before adding that more research needed to be done to determine if mitigation programs like the Clean Sweep program, the Diversion Outreach Team and other resources funded by Downtown Clean and Safe strategy were working.
