Her research included what is widely considered to be Lethbridge’s downtown, spanning from 2 Street to 13 Street and from 6 Ave South to 3 Ave North.

As seen in the image below, it separates the areas that are within 100 meters of the SCS, between 101-500 meters of the SCS, and the Downtown Southwest (DTSW).

The area that was studied in the Urban Social Issues Study. (Supplied by Dr. Em Pijl)

The findings:

Some issues where the public in all three zones saw things becoming worse include public drug use, dealing drugs in public, loitering, sex trade, people sleeping rough, trespassing, garbage and litter, discarded needles, drug paraphernalia, and unmaintained properties.

Public intoxication rose in the 100-meter and 500-meter zones but was down slightly in the DTSW.

The feelings of safety dropped in all zones, and the levels of satisfaction for running a business in Lethbridge’s downtown “consistently decreased across all zones”.

Specifically for those who live or work in the 100-meter zone, the respondents felt their neighbourhood was experiencing “ghettoization”, antisocial behaviours diminishing their quality of life, an inability to act or not being heard, and that social disorder was “inciting apprehension, uncertainty and fear.”

EMS saw a “significant increase” in calls for service to the 100-meter zone, as did the Diversion Outreach Team.

The downtown branch of the Lethbridge Public Library saw drug use continue but found fewer needles improperly disposed of as time went on.

The reaction:

Councillor Jeffrey Coffman commented that he felt the findings of the study were not surprising and confirmed what many in the community already believed to be true.

Mayor Chris Spearman was not available for comment at the time interviews on this topic were being conducted.

Urban Revitalization Manager Andrew Malcolm instead spoke on the city’s behalf.

He says the study was commissioned in 2017, prior to the SCS’ opening, after seeing a drastic rise in public drug use.

When it first became known that an SCS would be created in Lethbridge, Malcolm says there was concern on the city’s part that issues related to drug use and crime might become more prominent.

The city reviewed the few studies that were available on these types of facilities at the time.

“In that [literature] review, it identified that there were very little impacts to this kind of thing, but the studies all related on Vancouver [or] Sydney, Australia, some major cities,” says Malcolm. “We weren’t comfortable with that – we figured that the City of Lethbridge, being a small-to-mid-sized city, would have different implications.”

Just prior to the SCS opening in Lethbridge, Stacey Bourque with ARCHES stated that “no facility has any reports or any research that’s conducted that indicates that it brings more consumption or that it…causes degradation of neighborhoods. It actually reports the opposite.”

Following the release of this study, however, Dr. Pijl says the rise in needle debris, loitering, and sleeping outdoors was concerning to her and was “an indicator that there’s something going on in Lethbridge.”

Malcolm commented that city council must have been frustrated to learn that this is a complicated situation and that there is no singular “silver bullet” solution that will make all of Lethbridge’s drug and crime-related issues go away.

Some of the things Dr. Pijl is advocating for include a more comprehensive housing strategy and intox services that are available at a moment’s notice.

“If I’m using drugs and I need those drugs, there’s no way my life is organized enough to be able to [say], ‘OK, so in three weeks, I’m going to go to detox.’ That just doesn’t happen. We need on-demand detox to strike when the iron’s hot.”

You can access the full report from Dr. Pijl through this link.