Kamloops still wants ‘proper’ replacement for shuttered homeless drop-in program

Kamloops city council is trying again to get provincial government funding for a homeless drop-in centre more than a year after a volunteer-run program shut its doors.

The concept is not a shelter but a daytime hub, with access to health and housing services, along with a soup kitchen.

Councillor Dale Bass said the province didn’t respond to the last request for funding and that spurred a second lobbying effort.

“We’re asking this provincial government for help and we don’t even get the courtesy of a response or we get a boiler plate,” Bass said.

Her motion to lobby the province again was supported by nearly all of council at a meeting on Dec. 9. Had the effort been successful last year, it would have replaced the now-closed volunteer-run drop-in centre,The Loop.

“The Loop was run by volunteers and had no sanction from the provincial government, but we would like to work with the provincial government and BC Housing to come up with a proper facility,” Bass said.

Once operating on Tranquille Road, the volunteer soup kitchen offered ad hoc shelter space, food and support getting services like health care. But it was also a frequent site for visible homelessness and what appeared to be an unorganized operation.

Without it, there is no regular day space for homeless people on the North Shore to go other than public spaces.

“There was just no governmental buy-in,” Bass said. “This was just a renegade, well-intentioned person with other well-intentioned people and some professionals providing what the government won’t.”

The Loop’s former organizer Glenn Hilke organized a demonstration in front of city hall on Dec. 19, calling attention to the lack of a day space and demanded action.

Hilke, who was arrested at the demonstration, has called on the city hall to fund its own drop-in centre, but councillors are reluctant to spend local tax dollars on what’s seen as a provincial government responsibility.

“We are constantly taking on things and the provincial government keeps downloading on us, and we do it knowing we shouldn’t because somebody has to do it,” Bass said.

She said the day space council is lobbying for could include health care if Interior Health joins in, along with social workers to help with social assistance and housing access. But she added that the exact services it offers would be determined over time if the provincial government supports it.