An extreme weather shelter at the Kamloops Alliance Church could return next winter, if it is needed.

That is according to the outgoing Managing Director of The Mustard Seed Kamloops, Kelly Thomson, who told City Council Tuesday there were both successes and frustrations as the organization operated the facility in North Kamloops for the first time.

“It is being considered,” Thomson said. “We’ve got one more meeting to have to go through all of what really went well from an Alliance Church perspective, from our perspective, and how can we improve, but I think I say that there is an overwhelming desire should the opportunity be there.”

Thomson said the 30-bed facility at the Alliance Church had 510 total visits on the 21 nights it was operational since it opened on Dec. 14.

“It was 70 per cent male, 30 per cent women, 37 per cent Indigenous, very similar to what we actually find on the South Shore,” he said. “About 80 per cent of these folks were did not have relationships with and we didn’t know.”

“That was another concern that we had originally is ‘are they the same type of people?’ We found that if you treat people anywhere with dignity and respect, they give it back.”

Over the course of shelter operations, Thomson noted there were seven calls for an ambulance and one for the RCMP to respond.

“Five of those [ambulance calls] were for illnesses, two were for overdoses. And one RCMP call, simply because we couldn’t get the gentleman out of the washroom after he used. It was escalating so we thought we needed a little bit of help with that,” he said.

“Really, considering 21 nights with that many guests, I think our staff, volunteers, and team did a really great job.”

The extreme weather shelter was operational between 10 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. on nights when the temperature dropped to -10 C or below or if there was an accumulation of 5 cm of snow on the ground.

The Alliance Church provided a bus to transport people to and from the shelter at night and in the morning, something Thomson noted was “a critical requirement.”

He also told council it was difficult to “make fruitful connections” with the people who sought shelter from the elements at the shelter.

“We found it really difficult to connect our advocates into that space, simply because of the hours it was open,” Thomson said. “The fact that when [people] came in, they basically dropped on the cot and went to sleep and then they’re up early in the morning.

“There just was not a lot of time to have good conversations and maybe talk about, ‘How about going from A to B? Are you happy where you are?’ We got some of those conversations but not nearly what we were hoping to do.”

Thomson also said he felt the extreme weather shelter was well received by area residents. If the facility is to return, he was asked whether The Mustard Seed would consult with the community again or whether it would use the feedback it received this winter moving forward.

“I think it would be reasonable to simplify it a little bit, but I still you need to have engagement,” Thomson said. “There may be new neighbours, different people moved in, moved out.”

“If I think there is a difference between out closing meeting that we just had where we didn’t have a lot of people come because I think things went well and it was over versus we’re about to ramp up again. Maybe there are some new thoughts on things we can do well.”

Thomson was also asked if he feels the City of Kamloops needs another permanent shelter on the North Shore.

“Without question, we need it now, let alone next winter,” he responded. “Next winter would be the conversation whether we do the extreme shelter again and how we look to do that well.”