Lethbridge City Council creates task force to address housing needs

The City of Lethbridge is looking to help more residents overcome housing barriers with its new municipal housing strategy.

While previous efforts have focused on battling homelessness, a new task force is broadening that scope and addressing the full spectrum of housing needs residents may currently run into.

“We want to look at all the types of housing that are deficient in the city of Lethbridge,” said Lethbridge Mayor Chris Spearman. “Then what we want to do is identify our key priorities and our target groups to make a significant difference in our city.”

Although the city acknowledged that a rise in homelessness rates remains a concern, more residents and hopeful homeowners are also beginning to feel the burden associated with rising housing costs.

“We know that our need for affordable housing looks different than other communities,” said Robin James with the Lethbridge Housing Authority. “So we need to make sure that in our municipal housing strategy, we address that it’s affordable to the needs of the client that we’re serving versus affordable to the market.”

Working with stakeholders and city departments, the four-member task force — which is made up of Spearman and councillors Belinda Crowson, Rob Miyashiro and Blaine Hyggen — will also explore the need for assisted living, as well as transitional and social housing.

“It’s key to engage all stakeholders across the spectrum to make sure that we get the right information and the right data, so that we can all work together to truly address the entire spectrum of need across the community,” added Martin Thomson with the City of Lethbridge.

“We know that there has been a rise in homelessness, but again, we can’t just focus on that aspect.”

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The local plan aligns with a recently announced federal strategy that aims to better assess the housing needs of residents across the country and is expected to be completed by the end of October.