ARCH Participants Given Just 18 Days' Notice, Forced to Move as Program Shuts Down
Residents told June 12 they must leave by June 30.
Since the ARCH Supportive Sober Living Program program came into existence, it has helped 26 people. The Alberta government has decided to discontinue funding for the program with nothing currently in place to replace it. The eight currently enrolled people were given just 18 days to figure out where they're going next.
ARCH - Medicine Hat Community Snapshot
Action Research on Chronic Homelessness Initiative
Participants were told on June 12 that they have until June 30 to vacate, according to a letter sent to Premier Danielle Smith from one of the residents. That's less than three weeks for people with complex mental health and addiction challenges to find new housing and supports.
For many, "where they're going next" is a local motel. A motel room with a microwave and a mini-fridge, surrounded by strangers, with none of the wraparound supports that made ARCH work in the first place.
"I don't think anyone can honestly say they didn't know early enough to help these people secure new, safe housing," our source told us. "A lot will be moving into local motels, where let us be honest, are not very conducive to a person's recovery journey."
A participant's plea to the premier
One ARCH participant sent a letter to Premier Danielle Smith that cuts through all the bureaucratic language. The writer, who asked not to be named, expressed fear that the program's closure will leave eight participants in particular facing:
Homelessness or institutionalization
Relapse after months or years of stability
Loss of the mental health supports they've come to rely on
The letter is raw. It's honest. And it highlights exactly what's at stake here - not just housing, but the fragile stability people have built with the intensive support.
The ARCH program was never a handout. It was an experiment in doing things differently for people who had been failed by every other system. It combined housing with Indigenous healing practices, intensive case management, and a staff team trained to support people through trauma, addiction, and mental health struggles.
Moving to motels isn't moving forward
There's a reason motels aren't considered appropriate long-term housing for people in recovery. They're isolating. They lack kitchen facilities. They put vulnerable people in close proximity to others who may be using substances. And they come with none of the case management, cultural supports, or community that made ARCH different.
The program's own documents emphasized that participants need "choice and autonomy to stabilize in their new environments." A motel room offers neither. It's a pause button, not a solution.
Meeting scheduled, but time is running out
Jamie Rogers of the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society has a meeting scheduled with the Government of Alberta on June 30 - the very day the program is set to close - to discuss "potential options."
Whether that meeting represents a genuine last-minute reprieve or just a polite conversation about shutdown logistics is anyone's guess. But for the people living in ARCH right now, waiting until the final day to figure out what comes next feels less like hope and more like a cruel joke.
The Government of Alberta has not publicly explained its decision not to renew funding for a program that was serving some of the province's most vulnerable residents. And with the clock ticking, the people who called ARCH home are running out of time.
As our source put it: "People in our city are so negative about our 'homeless problem' but every time a support gets cut, it means our vulnerable have less of a chance of pulling themselves out of the mud."
