Safe sober shelter shot down by the city, head of the soup kitchen speaks out

The head of the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen says the city is not doing enough to protect our vulnerable population. Bill Ginther says when the city shot down the Mustard Seed’s proposal of a safe sober shelter, it put more people at risk. Last year Lethbridge city council voted 7-2 to not move forward with the collaboration. Ginther says our homeless need to be taken better care of.

“I really say that our current council needs to wake up, homeless people are people too, and they are not taxpayers but they citizens of our city, and they should be respected. They were created by the same God and if we forget that then we are all in trouble. They are no different than you and I. What would I do, what would you do if we had no home. Guests of ours, I know their names, I grieve when they die, and they do, and we as a city are not doing anything. We are just sitting by, blaming somebody else, so that’s kind of in a nutshell as what happened. I wish I could tell you what’s happening now, I can tell you, nothing, nothing at all,” said Bill Ginther, Executive Director of the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen.

Ginther says he spoke to Councilor Jenn Schmidt-Rempel who is in favor of building a sober shelter.