The City of Kamloops says BC Housing and other social agencies are looking into the possibility of adding an extreme weather shelter for people in need.

Social, Housing, and Community Development Manager, Carmin Mazzotta, says it would be in addition to temporary winter shelters at Stuart Wood school and the Kamloops Yacht Club.

“A temporary winter shelter is open on a daily and or nightly basis through BC Housing’s winter shelter season from Nov. 1 to March 31,” he said. “An extreme weather response shelter opens on days where the temperature drops below a predetermined threshold or where there’s a weather warning for inclement weather.”

“BC Housing and community service providers are still working on a potential extreme weather response shelter, and staff will update council if and when capacity is identified and the details are confirmed on that.”

The Stuart Wood Shelter is currently being operated by Out of the Cold Kamloops, while The Mustard Seed has taken over the Yacht Club shelter. Both are operating on a nightly basis, from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m., though the Mustard Seed is trying to expand the Yacht Club into a 24 hour operation.

Both shelters were to be operated by the Kamloops branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, though it pulled its support just days before the Nov. 1 opening date.

Mazzotta says since the early November cold snap there have been daily calls between shelter operators, non-profits, police, city staff, BC Housing and Interior Health, where they discuss street outreach efforts, while also how to address the gaps that exist.

“We’re monitoring on a daily basis to see if there are spaces where there are openings to bring folks in, to have them warm up and be able to get in there, well, let’s get them inside,” Mazzotta said.

“If that’s needing transportation to get folks to the Mustard Seed during the daytime, that needs to be coordinated. Fortunately ASK [Wellness] and CMHA and even some of the other organizations, [Interior Community Services] etc., are all working together on that. And we’re trying to stay as coordinated as possible.

Asked by Councillor Dale Bass about efforts to increase warming spaces for people during the day, Mazzotta referenced the Mustard Seed’s plan to run the Yacht Club shelter on a 24/7 basis.

“Hopefully soon they will be able to get that to a 24/7 operation,” he said. “Out of the Cold at Stuart Wood, they’re a smaller nonprofit, and they’ve done incredible work to get operational as quickly as they can.”

“So it’s a matter of what can we do to support them and work with BC Housing to try to see if we can expand that, or can we identify another space elsewhere?”

Earlier this month, Community and Protective Services Director Byron McCorkell wondered whether an emergency declaration – similar to what is done during floods and fires – would lead to more action on emergency shelters from the province.

He says the City has heard that Emergency Management BC is looking into creating emergency shelters when it gets to -10 C or colder.

“This is a conversation that I know our new mayor is very concerned about and I know our new council will be as well and I think the phone call should be to our new premier and ask ‘what are you doing?’ because we are municipal staff and our social providers are standing here flat footed in a situation where the snow is coming down,” he said.

“Perhaps the folks in Victoria where its plus 10 degrees should probably understand what its like to live in minus 10 on the street. It is just not right.”

Another shelter at Parkview Activity Centre?

Meanwhile, the operator of The Loop says he’s reached out to some city councillors about potentially operating another emergency winter shelter for people in need.

“You know if you can use the Yacht Club which is a city facility, why can’t you use the Parkview Activity Centre on the North Shore as a facility?” Glenn Hilke said on NL Newsday. “It can hold another probably 20 to 25 people.”

Speaking on NL Newsday, Hilke says he was told by councillors that they’ll reach out to Byron McCorkell about that possibility.

He also says “he’s at his wits end” as all of the shelters in Kamloops are operating at capacity, forcing people to turn to warming centres as temperatures in the area hover at or near 0 C.

– With files from Brett Mineer