30-bed overnight winter shelter at Kamloops Alliance Church (Image credit: CFJC)

By Connor Gunn

WINTER SHELTERS

Mustard Seed’s 30-bed winter shelter at Kamloops Alliance Church ready for clients, weather permitting

Dec 15, 2022 | 4:37 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Mustard Seed in Kamloops has aided those experiencing homelessness to get out of the cold through its winter shelter at the Kamloops Yacht Club.

Almost one month ago, the Mustard Seed announced they would operate another winter overnight shelter in the Kamloops Alliance Church gymnasium.

Now, the 30-bed overnight shelter at the Kamloops Alliance Church is ready for clients.

“The concept is that they’re going to be cold, most of them are going to be from outside so when they come in here it’s going to be warm, they’ll go through our intake process, we’ll put them in one of the cots we have here they’ll be assigned one. Then, the Kamloops Alliance Church will be supplying meals so they will be able to get a warm meal here at night,” says the Mustard Seed Managing Director Kelly Thomson.

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The church will be open for clients from 10:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. the next morning when the temperature reaches minus 10, or when the city receives a five-centimetre snowfall.

Thomson says he knows Kamloops needs this service more than ever with cold weather expected for this upcoming weekend.

“At minus 10 I mean it’s cold especially if the wind’s blowing and the temperatures are going to come down to minus 20 at the look of it so that means it could help a lot of people and there could be chances for people to pass away and we don’t want that to happen,” Thomson adds.

The Kamloops Alliance Church’s Danielle Johnson says the ultimate goal is to allow people suffering from homelessness a warm place to sleep as well as a hot plate of food.

“We want to play our part in contributing to the health and vitality of our city and we look at the resources that we have a beautiful space and facility help provide meals so we just want to play our part of getting people out of the cold,” says Johnson.

Thomson added there will be rules in the winter shelter that clients will have to abide by but also reminds people that many of the nightly guests they will see just need to be heard.

He hopes that this step could eventually help people experiencing homelessness going forward.

“We try to learn their names so when they come back we know who they are and just by calling out their name, think about it, when does a homeless person get to hear their name? Very, very seldom, so when they come in it feels good to hear your name so that’s what we try to do is give them that dignity and try to learn their stories.”

The church’s winter shelter is projected to open Saturday (December 17) night as temperatures are expected to drop below minus 10 with the wind chill.