The temporary shelter at the Yacht Club opens on Tuesday night (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

WINTER SHELTERS

Out of the Cold, Mustard Seed step up to operate city’s two winter shelters

Nov 8, 2022 | 4:18 PM

KAMLOOPS — It was more than a week ago the Canadian Mental Health Association pulled out of operating the two temporary shelters in Kamloops. It left about 40 street-affected people without places to sleep.

The sudden onset of winter put the pressure on for something to be done, and within 24 hours both shelters are open.

“Stuart Wood was able to open [Monday] night (Nov. 7) and that really is just through the unbelievable work of the Out of the Cold program and other community service providers coming together,” said the city’s social, housing and community development manager Carmin Mazzotta.

On Monday, Mazzotta says 24 people had a place to sleep at Stuart Wood and another 24 were able to come in and warm up throughout the frigid night.

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According to data provided by ASK Wellness, there were 162 people in shelters between CMHA and Mustard Seed on Monday night — in addition to the people staying at Stuart Wood. At the two warming stations in the city, 26 people were helped at Spero House on Tranquille Road, while 20 people warmed up at the Crossroads Inn on Seymour Street. Nine people refused shelter.

A day later, and the city has announced the 15-bed Yacht Club, the second temporary shelter funded by BC Housing, will be operational on Tuesday night.

“The Yacht Club will be open likely 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., and The Mustard Seed will be coordinating along with all the other service providers — CMHA, ASK, Interior Community Services — around making sure that folks can be transported to and from that shelter and that those outreach teams are reaching out to folks and picking them up and getting them to the two winter shelter sites,” noted Mazzotta.

Just like Out of the Cold, which is going from three-days-a-week to seven-days-a-week at Stuart Wood, The Mustard Seed Kamloops is filling a much-needed gap by volunteering to operate the Yacht Club.

“It all comes about from a lot of the collaboration of all our agencies in town. We’re all concerned about having people on the streets and being cold and the potential of freezing and even death,” noted managing director at The Mustard Seed, Kelly Thomson.

The decision came in the 11th hour, happening Monday night when the city, social agencies and BC Housing met to find a solution.

“One of the things we were fortunate is we just closed down the Gathering Place [on West Victoria Street] at the end of October, which meant we had a few staff available, so we managed to re-engage them and they gave us the ability to open the Yacht Club at least for night time,” said Thomson.

However, with uncertain staffing levels, The Mustard Seed can only commit week by week.

“It’s juggling. We’re going to take a few people away from here and there. We’re going to get at least through this cold stretch and we’ll see if we can continue on beyond the cold stretch. We’re hoping maybe if we can some more staff around, we can do something to help that way, too.”

The weather is forecast to warm up a bit in the next couple days, but with nighttime lows remaining around the -5°C mark for at least the next week, the shelters opening come at the perfect time.

The Out of the Cold program did not return CFJC Today‘s calls following a busy first night at Stuart Wood.