The Mustard Seed will operate an emergency winter shelter at the Kamloops Yacht Club until the end of March next year.

“We have confirmed with BC Housing that a budget is in place, to continue the operation of the overnight shelter in the Yacht Club for the balance of the winter months,” Mustard Seed Director of Operations, Nyasha Manyanye, said, in an email.

Originally set to be used on as needed basis during cold snaps, Mustard Seed Managing Director Kelly Thomson says the facility on River Street will now be open every night from 8 p.m to 8 a.m. with 19 beds. There will be four full-time Mustard Seed staff and a security staffer from the City of Kamloops on-site while the shelter is open.

“We have committed that we will be there on the nights for sure, and we’ve got the staffing in place right now to do that,” he said. “The complexity with that is more around transportation because we don’t want them loitering around the area either.”

Speaking on the NL Noon Report, Thompson says they’re currently in the process of finding and training staff to be able to operate 24/7.

“Because that just makes it a lot simpler for transportation, food deliveries, a lot of that kind of stuff,” he said, noting people staying at the shelter will get dinner in the evening and breakfast in the morning.

“Those wraparound services we talk about, those are important and if we can transport them over to our outreach centre over on West Victoria, we’ve got some mental health counselling that we are able to do though some volunteers and different things.”

While ambition, he notes the goal is to become a 24/7 operation by the end of this month

“You have the same people and you can start to build relationships with them and so if we can maybe get one of our advocates to get in there and help them out with some of the basic needs around even as much as ID or a birth certificate that would help them get bank accounts and stuff like that, it would help,” Thomson said.

“There are some things we can do that maybe we can help people along the road. Instead of just keeping them alive, maybe we can get them a life.”