100 homeless discovered in Kamloops during this year’s count

Nov 21, 2016 | 11:40 AM

KAMLOOPS — The numbers are in for this year’s homeless count in Kamloops, and the consensus among those on the street is that rental housing in the city is far too expensive. 

The Homelessness Action Committee says 100 people were discovered throughout the city during the count in October. Three-quarters of the homeless were men, but most everyone they spoke with said in their survey that finding shelter is often out of their price range. 

“The big concern is that housing is too expensive,” says Brad Serl, coordinator of the 2016 homeless count. “We had almost 75% of our interviewees who responded talk about how they can’t afford a place to live. When I was crunching the numbers for this, on that day, the cheapest one-bedroom apartment was about $750.”

The numbers will now be sent out to social agencies in Kamloops to be analyzed. The amount of homeless people counted can reflect how much funding agencies receive from government.