The City of Kamloops has approved a short-term facility use permit for The Gathering Place located at 48 West Victoria Street, meant for people experiencing homelessness.

Operated by The Mustard Seed and the Kamloops Aboriginal Friendship Society, the facility will be open from April 1 until Oct. 30, after the temporary winter shelter at the Stuart Wood School gymnasium closes its doors on Mar. 31.

“The Gathering Place is a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous service providers and an opportunity to provide a culturally safe space for people experiencing homelessness to access supports during daytime hours,” Carmin Mazzotta, the City’s Social, Housing, and Community Development Manager, said.

“The two service providers have been approved for funding through Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy, a federal program aimed at preventing and reducing homelessness, to operate The Gathering Place in 2022 and 2023.”

Mazzotta says The Gathering Place fills an identified need for a day space on the South Shore. It will be open from 12 noon until 8 p.m., seven days a week with the space maintained and cleaned on an nightly basis.

According to Mazzotta, The Gathering Place provided 642 meals and had 2,792 unique visits while it was operational between Aug. 16 and Nov. 5, 2021.

“The service providers plan to improve and expand the services on site in 2022 with increased activities, advocacy and navigation services, Indigenous cultural programming and traditional meals, and client involvement in supporting site management,” Mazzotta said.

In his report to City Council, Mazzotta said 44 per cent of the people who used that space in 2021 identified as Indigenous, noting it was similar to the 47 per cent of people who identified as Indigenous in the 2021 Point-in-Time count. That count, done on April 15 and 16, found 206 people experiencing homelessness in Kamloops.

“[It is] a significant over representation when compared with the 10 per cent of people in Kamloops who identified as Indigenous in the 2016 Census,” Mazzotta wrote.

A similar day space on the North Shore called Envision was scheduled to open at 346 Campbell Ave. though that did not materialize. Instead, it led to the Envision shuttle, which provided people in need with outreach services and transportation to day spaces.

That Campbell Ave. property is now owned by the City of Kamloops. The City also has an agreement with BC Housing who will buy that property at a later date.

Mazzotta noted that the City has not yet identified a location for day space on the North Shore, but added work on that front is ongoing.

“It was the service providers [who] bought that location to us, but the existing property owner at the time did not wish to continue with the arrangement that was to be established,” he said.

Concerns Around Location

A pair of Kamloops City Councillors though raised issues on the location of this day space in the West Victoria Street corridor during Tuesday’s meeting.

“We already have the Mustard Seed, which to me, for all intents and purposes is similar to a day space,” Denis Walsh said. “I just think this compounds some of the concerns that residents and businesses have in that area. I don’t understand why we can’t find a better location or a couple more locations.”

Walsh did note that he thinks the City is making progress on a number of social issues, but he wondering about the need to bring people who need these supports to one downtown location.

“We’re drawing everybody, all the way from say the Maverick, from the Greyhound site, from the Kingston site, from Spero House, from all the sites on the North Shore to that one location because it is all that is offered,” Walsh said. “A lot of these locations – the Rosethorn too – have day spaces, and I think we should be enhancing those in the locations that they’re in already.”

Walsh and Councillor Bill Sarai were the only two who voted against approving the short-term facility use permit.

“It is a great idea, I think we need a day space on both sides of the river, but I don’t think this is the right place for it based on what I’ve seen last year,” Sarai said, referencing issues about food being littered in the area.

“More food was probably littered in that corridor than what was probably consumed on site. I don’t know if it was our providers, what I think was happening was after they were closed, maybe another provider showed up with food, and that was what was left behind,” he added.

“If we are having such good success at Stuart Wood, could that not be used for a site in the summertime as a day space, to take away the pressure that is already put in that corridor?”

Asked about other potential day space on the South Shore, Mazzotta said the City has not looked into that, at this time.

“When we speak to Spero House or Rosethorn having day spaces, what they have is amenity areas, no different than a multi-family development meant for the use of residents,” he said.