An emergency shelter at Stuart Wood Elementary in Kamloops will open tonight with space for 24 people.

Community and Protective Services Director, Byron McCorkell, says the downtown facility will be open seven days a week until the end of March next year.

“And its because of the folks at Out of the Cold that this is being able to happen,” he said. “BC Housing has worked really hard to try and get them up and operating as quick as we could and we’re really pleased to hear about it.”

“[Out of the Cold] is up for the challenge and they are being fully supported by BC Housing in getting this up and going. It is a little different from last year in that we used the winter shelter as a 24/7 operation. This is going to be an 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. operation at this point.”

The shelter will also have some additional seated spaces for people to stay warm as overnight temperatures are expected to hit -8 C, with a wind chill between -13 C to -18 C tonight through to Wednesday.

Speaking on NL Newsday, McCorkell said the other emergency shelter at the Kamloops Yacht Club is set to open “in the next couple of days”, noting the focus was to get Stuart Wood operational as quickly as possible.

“It’s been a complete community response and I think that is what I have been speaking of,” he said. “Kamloops always rises to the occasion and as the City we’re just here to try and coordinate and put people in the right conversations and make things happen as best we can.”

ASK Wellness is also operating two warming centres at Crossroads Inn and Spero House tonight through to Friday, while Interior Community Services has also extended the hours of its downtown youth outreach centre on Seymour Street, giving people under the age of 25 a place to warm up until 8:00 p.m.

These announcements come as Glenn Hilke, the operator of “The Loop” demanded immediate action, noting he took in 42 people at his drop-in center-turned-make-shift cold weather shelter on Tranquille Road last night.

The Canadian Mental Health Association in Kamloops was supposed to be operating the emergency winter shelters at Stuart Wood School and the Yacht Club, though it pulled its support just days before the Nov. 1 opening date.