Lethbridge's homeless struggle with the cold

LETHBRIDGE -

Cold snaps like the one currently consuming all of Alberta are especially challenging for the homeless.

There's nowhere to warm up consistently, and those working with the vulnerable know just how dangerous that can be.

"We're doing what we can. … Most of them do find places," said Bill Ginther, executive director of the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen.

"Sadly, we do see some amputations. People are given gloves but when you're using, you don't always remember you had gloves."

The Lethbridge Shelter and Resource Centre is doing what it can.

During the latest count in 2022, there were 454 people experiencing homelessness in the city.

A temporary winter shelter set up with funding from the province has increased capacity to about 250 people a night.

"We are open and have shelter capacity for everyone needing us in this cold snap," said Kash Shade, COO for the Blood Tribe Department of Health.

"We did get peak numbers last night -- our biggest number we've ever had to date, which was a 201 nightly head count."

Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services Jason Nixon is satisfied with the amount of shelter space in the province.

He says shelter space is available across the province for anyone who needs it.

"We have enough space inside our province. We are monitoring it each day. We will make adjustments to the shelter spaces if we need to. We have not needed to, nor do we anticipate we will need to. We are well below capacity each day," Nixon said.

Despite the additional shelter spaces in Lethbridge, some homeless advocates say more needs to be done to support the homeless.

"We are looking forward to some plans here in the upcoming years to expand shelter space, for the City of Lethbridge to ensure we actually do have enough shelter beds for the population," said Cam Kissick, COO for Streets Alive Mission.

While the city has created comfort centres under its extreme weather response protocol, the latest any of the facilities are open is midnight.