Lethbridge City Hall - LNN

By Connor Gunn / David Opinko

Council approves funding for new women’s transitional home

Feb 24, 2020 | 5:39 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – City Councillors have approved partial funding for a new transitional home for women seeking recovery.

Streets Alive Mission currently runs a similar facility in the city but only has the capacity for five beds.

By purchasing a home at 1604 – Scenic Drive South for an estimated cost of $1,741,000, they will be able to expand it to 20 beds.

The City of Lethbridge will provide a total of $425,000 to renovate this property, $300,000 of which will come from the Municipal Block Funding program and the remaining $125,000 will come through the City’s Housing Fund. Streets Alive will contribute $1,316,756 from community donations that were made to them.

The motion was brought forward last fall from community concern about the women in need of help and treatment for addictions and trauma.

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The transitional home will offer recovery/aftercare services that could see women in post-treatment recovery take part in a few years of programming in an “abstinence-based, safe, supportive, affordable housing environment,” according to a letter from Streets Alive to the City of Lethbridge.

The money from the city will help in the capital side of things, while Streets Alive will fund their own long-term operating costs.

City Councillor Belinda Crowson says she knows how a project like this can affect someone’s life.

“We created the municipal housing strategy and we know there’s a lot of areas we still need to work on. Housing is such a vital part of dealing with addictions, dealing with vulnerable people. Once you have a house, you have stability, you have support, you can start looking at employment, you can start working on recovery, and this is looking at that continuum of care.”

Crowson also noted the facility has a minimum life span of 20 years.

She told LNN that the project could have proceeded without city funding, but that would result in significant delays.

A firm date for development has yet to be set.

More details on the project from Streets Alive can be read here.

Note: LNN has updated portions of this article to make corrections and add information.