The Loop, located at 405 Tranquille Road, provides meals and other services for the homeless and marginalized in Kamloops (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

NUISANCE PROPERTY

The Loop trying to shed nuisance designation, working with city to improve situation

May 31, 2021 | 4:55 PM

KAMLOOPS — The operator of local non-profit that has come under fire recently is feeling more hopeful after meetings with the city.

Glenn Hilke runs The Loop on Tranquille Road, a social agency that provides three meals a day for the homeless and marginalized. He met with the city’s community services manager Tammy Blundell and says it was positive.

“We’re working closely together now to figure out how that is going to change,” said Hilke in reference to being removed as a nuisance property. “It’s a process. It’s a process that ever-evolving for the city as well because even as a bylaw, it still is trying to be understood and implemented on a case-by-case basis.”

Hilke says it’s the only such service on the North Shore. It’s an extension of an agency he used to run called Jump.

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“This organization has become more peer-oriented, so we train and hire people with lived experience that are interested in moving on with their lives, doing something positive,” he said. “We have been told by our funders, by the city that what we do is necessary. It’s important. It fills in a gap that other agencies are not doing.”

However, while some say the work Hilke is doing is honourable, the North Shore Business Improvement Association has been critical of an increased number of people congregating in the area.

Kamloops city councillors have also been raising alarm bells about the non-profit.

“As always, and I feel for Glenn, what he envisions at the beginning just gets out of hand. It just gets uncontrollable,” said Councillor Bill Sarai. “Now this is way too much. It’s affecting the neighbourhood.”

Sarai says Hilke is well-intended, but he’s attracting the wrong crowd and it’s having a huge impact on surrounding businesses.

“There’s 10, 20 businesses around his outreach setup that are just at [their] wits end,” he said. “They’re losing their customers; they’re scared to go outside. Their staff are terrified.”

Hilke would like councillors and others in the community to visit the site before making a final judgment.

Josh Fowler, who lives behind The Loops, filed complaints against The Loops, especially after his truck was vandalized. Now he’s changed his tune and donates whatever he can to the agency.

“Places like this do need support from the community, and I think if more people understood what they’re trying to do here, their mission might be a lot more successful and we’d probably actually see a reduction of this kind of activity in the area,” he said.