A cold weather shelter operated by the Mustard Seed Kamloops is likely to open its doors for the first time Saturday night.

That’s when the overnight temperature will dip below -10 degrees, one of the thresholds set for when it would open.

Managing director Kelly Thomson says the shelter at the Kamloops Alliance Church on the North Shore can hold up to 30 people on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“Number 31 unfortunately is not going to be able to but what we would look to do then is see if we have room in one of our other shelters or possibly Stuart Wood.”

Thomson says they’ve tried to tailor the operation based on what they heard from area residents and businesses.

“Most of the people, I won’t say all, most of them I think when they left they felt heard. At least I hope they did. I made sure that I was there and all my key members of our team were there so they were talking to the people that were going to make the decisions to make this work right.”

To address concerns, security around the church will be stepped up not just overnight – but during the day when the shelter is closed.

No drugs or weapons are allowed inside with Thomson noting each person staying at the shelter will have to go through a screening process.

“We do a bag search looking for any drugs or weapons we remove and they are not allowed to have those in the facility. Once we have that we will put them and mark them in bags for them and depending on what it is, they may get it back at the end of the night, or they may not,” he explains.

“From here then they would go over and they would be assigned a cot, and then they put their backpack beside their cot, that is their space.”

The shelter will operate whenever there is a snowfall of 5 centimetres or greater or the temperature dips below -10 degrees.

-With Files from Abby Zieverink