The operator of a makeshift shelter on the Kamloops North Shore is pleading with the City to open up public resources — both physical and financial — to help the homeless survive this current blast of winter weather.
“I scraped up people, literally, off the ground.”
An exasperated Glenn Hilke says they put up 42 people overnight at his drop-in center-turned-make-shift cold weather shelter on Tranquille.
This, on top of driving around, finding and transporting 11 people to the emergency room at Royal Inland Hospital to find warmth.
“We have to realize that they are fellow human beings. We might not like the way they look, we might not like the way they smell, the way they walk, what they are pushing in the carts of their personal belongings, but they are fellow human beings.”
#kamloops looks like a blizzard by the hospital pic.twitter.com/T7HyOCruXZ
— Kamscan💀👽 (@Kamscan) November 7, 2022
Hilke argues the system is broken
“I left a message for the mayor at 2 or 3 in the morning saying please open up some kind of building tomorrow because it’s just going to get worse, the weather is going to get colder too,” he said.
“It is just inhumane… I don’t know what the councilors are thinking, I don’t know when they go to bed and see this storm, do they think about this? Do they realize, wow, it’s really screwed up here?”
At the same time, Hilke says he’s now at his financial wits-end, saying that without some form of financing to keep people working at “The Loop,” he doubts whether he’ll be able to remain open past tomorrow.
“We have everything we need to run except money. We’ve been doing this without a penny for us to hire the staff necessary to pay them the living wage to work the difficult shift, which is from 9 p.m. to 8 or 9 a.m.”
Hilke estimates it to cost roughly $600 a night to operate The Loop as a warming facility, a weekly price tag of an estimated $4,000.
“If the shelters are not going to be opening anytime soon, we cannot continue to do what we’re doing.”
Hilke explains he will need $6,000 a week in funding to operate The Loop as a 24-hour winter homeless shelter.
“The money is there, so something has to give here because you know the situation is not getting any better. There have been events as you know, where people have died trying to keep themselves warm.”
Suggesting he has lost hope in receiving interim funding from BC Housing or the City Kamloops to help keep the doors open at the Loop, Hilke explains he is reaching out to the private sector for assistance.
“I’m hoping that they will come through because it impacts the whole community,” he said.
“For the 42 people that are in the Loop tonight, where would they be when businesses wake up in the morning, in front of your business behind your business? Where are they going to the bathroom in front of your business or behind your business? No, they were inside the Loop going to the bathroom.”
Last year, the City declared The Loop as a nuisance property, deeming it unfit to run as a shelter; Hilke pointed this to Monday morning.
“The whole nuisance status that was slapped on us wrongly. A year over a year and a half ago. We’re not a nuisance, and we’re a solution. We’re a solution-based, proactive organization. I think it’s just time that if that gets recognized.”
Mayor of Kamloops calls for more accountability
But at the same time, the mayor of Kamloops is calling on the Canadian Mental Health Association to open its doors to people in need
Reid Hamer-Jackson says he was told about some people who were not let into Emerald House on West Victoria Street because it was full.
“One guy was in a wheelchair right out front the Emerald Centre and they’re saying they’re full, well they’ve got three plus they’ve got the CMHA Club House at the end of Seymour Street, so lets get the doors open,” he said.
“We’ve got employees at the City that are working on this or supposed to be, but anyway, lets figure out what is going on with these existing shelters. I mean, I haven’t heard much from them and its just very disappointing.”
CMHA was supposed to be operating emergency winter shelters at Stuart Wood School and the Yacht Club, before pulling its support just days before the November 1 opening.
Hamer-Jackson says he will be speaking with David Trawin, the City’s CAO, on Monday, to discuss solutions for winter shelters in Kamloops this year.
“We’ve got a shelter operator here that’s been in Kamloops for years, and we’ve got they’ve got three free shelters. Let’s get the doors open.”
At this time, there is no word on when — or if — either facility will open this Winter.
