Lethbridge park at the fore of city's struggles with addiction, homelessness
Galt Gardens is city's main downtown event space; police say it's also a hotbed for encampments
Laid out on the grass with duffel bags doubling as pillows, Sarah says she and her friends come to Galt Gardens for the same reasons as everyone else.
They find respite from the sweltering summer heat in the shade of the park's century-old trees, cool off in the spray park, and take advantage of amenities like bathrooms. Plus, the area is beautiful and relaxing.
The big difference, she says, is what happens after.
"Everyone has somewhere else to go right? It's just some people don't."
Sarah — whose last name is withheld because of concerns about her family finding her — is one of many people sleeping rough at Galt Gardens.
This summer, the park in the heart of downtown Lethbridge has been in the news a lot — not just because of the events it hosted like pride celebrations or vintage car shows, but due to community members' concerns about open drug use, homelessness, and feeling unsafe.
In June, the construction of a playground in the park sparked backlash, especially after the Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) sounded the alarm on suspected fentanyl shaped like a candy bear found in the park.
The following month city council narrowly rejected a proposal to explore fencing the park off and closing it during late hours.
However, Sarah says people living on the streets are the ones who feel unsafe due to being targeted and physically and verbally abused.
"They're more threatening to us than we are to them," she said.
Encampments common
Galt Gardens is a nearly four-hectare park nestled between a mall and the city's business district.
The city's oldest park, it's the major downtown outdoor event hub. However, LPS say the park is also a hotbed for encampments.
It is not uncommon to see people using illicit drugs. Nearby residents and business owners say emergency vehicles frequently respond to overdoses.
While she describes the people who work there as good and kind, Sarah says not everyone feels safe at the shelter and it can be intimidating for those new to living on the streets.
For many, encampments are the better option.
Last summer, an encampment sprung up in a park behind the Civic Ice Arena.
The "tent city" as Sarah calls it was cleared out by the city in August over public safety concerns.
She says the current issues are the knock-on effects of that decision and others like it that have pushed the homeless toward the downtown core.
"They have spent their time and money cutting away places that we used to tuck away in and out of public eye view."
When the fencing motion was voted on in late July, councillors who voted against it were worried it would once again move the issue somewhere else without addressing it.
Protesters felt the same.
Chants of "build houses not fences" rang out on the steps of city hall before the motion was defeated 5-4.
Angela Harrison was one of those protesters.
An addict in recovery, she says when people dealing with addiction are pushed away from public spaces it means they can overdose far away from help.
"It creates a safety issue in my opinion."
Ongoing effort to change downtown perception
Safety is a word that comes up often in discussions about downtown Lethbridge.
During CBC Lethbridge's January launch event, community members reached out via the Subtext texting app to say they wouldn't attend because they felt unsafe going to the event's location downtown.
Revitalizing Galt Gardens is a key component in the city's plans to change that perception.
"It might seem counterintuitive but years of research and evidence, from around the world, shows the best way to revitalize a community space is to attract more people and activity to the area," the city said in a press release, following backlash from the construction of an accessible playground.
There has been investment in the area around the park. In the last decade CASA — a community arts space and gallery — was opened to its east.
Festival Square — a plaza and outdoor event space — was built and there are more renovations planned for the Southern Alberta Art Gallery that backs onto the park.
Downtown Business Revitalization Zone executive director Sarah Aimes also points to the slew of local businesses new and old that continue to make downtown their home.
Aimes says the goal is to "provide an exciting, engaging, vibrant destination for all residents of Lethbridge to come, shop, work, play and learn."
Distinction between safety, comfort
LPS Sgt. Ryan Darroch notes people may be safer than they think downtown, despite feeling otherwise.
"I understand that there's people that don't feel comfortable. I'm working my butt off to try and change that and make it more inviting, because our downtown's awesome," said Darroch.
He says it is unlikely a stranger will attack someone as over 80 per cent of violent incidents that happen downtown occur between people known to one another.
Sarah says while people are worried for their safety, the reverse is often the case.
She says people living on the streets are regularly targeted by other community members, especially on weekends when people leave the bars drunk.
It is common for verbal threats or drinks to be hurled at them, and people sometimes invade their privacy by recording them or shining their high beam headlights at them, according to Sarah.
Sometimes, she says, young people new to being homeless are lured toward vehicles with the promise of food or a cigarette, only to be bear maced.
"I would rather be in the park with these guys than out there with them because they're the real threat," she says, gesturing toward the vehicles passing on the road.
She says some might feel threatened by large groups of homeless people walking together, but they do so for their own safety.
"We all try to take care of each other and look after each other"
Empathy for encampments necessary, says resident
In May, the city launched a new encampment strategy that included hiring response staff, a housing specialist, and contracting local organization Streets Alive to provide outreach services.
As of its July update the city said it has cleaned out 70 encampments, many of them in Galt Gardens.
The strategy is aimed at getting people off the streets and toward the help they need.
A city spokesperson said it is important to stop encampments from becoming entrenched for the safety of those living in them and that of the community.
But Sarah says cleanups cause added stress, as it's possible to lose everything in a flash if you're not there when it happens.
"Your emergency stuff, your blankets, your bikes, everything that you have."
She says she wants more empathy for those living on the streets.
"It may just look like a bunch of random people or a bunch of tents or a bunch of bikes, but these are all somebody's kids and a lot of the time they didn't get to be kids."
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