The Lethbridge Shelter and Resource Centre is about to undergo a major renovation.
The Government of Alberta announced a $4-million capital grant on Friday, adding to the City of Lethbridge’s $1.4-million injection.
The expansion will add 125 shelter spaces and 30 stabilization spaces — a significant increase for the facility’s current 75 emergency spaces.
The province also signed a memorandum of understanding, continuing the Blood Tribe Department of Health’s management of the facility for the long term.
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Jason Nixon, Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services suggests more than 90 per cent of the homeless population in Lethbridge is Indigenous.
He underscored the importance of making the shelter an Indigenous-led organization, “…to allow them to lead this process, to run the shelter in culturally appropriate ways and to work with their people and [ensure] that we’re here in a supportive way, not in a leading way.”
The facility is expected to remain open during the renovations.