Reports of homeless encampments and related concerns have declined sharply over the past year in Lethbridge, according to a recent update.
The latest Encampment Strategy update, presented to the Community Issues Committee Tuesday, covered April through mid-June. Reports to Lethbridge 311 related to encampments dropped 65 per cent compared with the same period in 2025, falling from 454 to 159. Other categories of complaints also declined, with reports of encampments down 72 per cent, debris complaints falling 70 per cent, needle reports dropping 54 per cent and biohazard complaints decreasing 46 per cent.
The number of confirmed encampments also declined, dropping 60 per cent year over year from 460 to 186.
However, the report indicates that while fewer encampments remain, those that continue to exist tend to be larger, more challenging to manage and located closer to established social service agencies.
Andrew Malcolm, the city’s general manager of Community Social Development, said the encampment response program was designed to give residents an easy way to report encampments and other public safety concerns while ensuring dedicated teams could respond quickly.
“By having a system to report those as well as a resourced effort to respond to them, what we’re seeing is that the general public are largely not seeing these being as visible as they once were,” Malcolm said.
He said the remaining encampments present different operational challenges because they are becoming more centralized.
“It is just kind of changing in its complexity a little bit where those locations are becoming a little bit centralized around the social services that exist in our community,” Malcolm said. “As this is a management technique, it just proves a different challenge for our team, but we continue to respond.”
Although the number of new clients remained relatively steady, outreach workers reported a growing need for support services. Referrals increased 68 per cent year over year, including a 325 per cent increase in medical referrals and a 173 per cent increase in referrals for addiction and mental health supports.
During the reporting period, outreach staff helped six people move out of homelessness. Two entered addiction treatment programs outside Lethbridge after months of ongoing support.
Malcolm said those outcomes reflect years of collaboration among governments and community organizations.
“This is a result of multiple years of investments from three levels of government,” he said. “I think we’re one piece of that, and I’m hopeful that the community is seeing the results of all of those efforts.”
He said the city is also seeing positive changes in public spaces.
“The drop in 311 and the visibility to the general community and making public spaces like Galt Gardens and some of our large public spaces feeling safe again for everyone is certainly something that, on behalf of my team, I feel really proud of.”
“Our goal here is not to just move people around the community. We want to see people having success and being connected to the services that will help them live a better life.”
Information presented to the committee showed city crews carried out fewer coordinated encampment cleanups than a year earlier. Cleanups declined 30 per cent and the amount of debris collected fell by more than half, consistent with the overall drop in encampment activity.
Despite the declining number of encampments, Malcolm said they continue to pose safety concerns, particularly the possibility of fires.
“We still do have regular occurrence of evidence of fire in encampments, including the use of propane tanks,” he said. “All it takes is one spark to cause a much bigger public safety risk.”
The report notes encampments have become less common in the river valley than in previous years, but warns the risk of fires in the river bottom remains significant, making continued patrols and public reporting important.
“When we know about them, we can certainly do something about them,” Malcolm said.
Looking ahead, the city expects the largest and most complex encampments to remain clustered near support agencies as demand for mental health, addiction and medical supports continues to increase. The report also points to new detox and treatment facilities in southern Alberta, additional supportive housing initiatives and ongoing homelessness research as opportunities to improve long-term outcomes.
