With the Kamloops Curling Club homeless shelter set to close tomorrow, the city says it will keep the shelter next door at Memorial Arena open for as long as needed.

There are now 50 shelter beds at the ice rink; there had been 30 beds but 20 were added this week, ahead of the curling club shelter closing down. The Canadian Mental Health Association Kamloops branch, which operates the Memorial Arena shelter, expects it will be full.

The ice rink at 740 Victoria Street has been used as a shelter since May of 2020, and the city says it will stay that way until it can work with BC Housing to find a new shelter space.

“To return Memorial Arena to recreational use without an alternative shelter location would result in many people being displaced into unsheltered street homelessness, which is not an option,” mayor Ken Christian said in a news release on Friday afternoon.

According to the point-in-time homeless count done in April, there were 222 homeless residents in Kamloops. The city says its temporary shelters only have room for 130 beds, meaning more than 90 residents are without a roof over their head on any given night.

Meanwhile, the city says it’s considering using ice rinks in Chase or Logan Lake for user groups in the fall. It says doing so would allow Memorial Arena to continue being used as a homeless shelter, if needed.

In a statement to NL News, BC Housing says it will share more information when it becomes available about opening a new shelter space in Kamloops.