Out of the Cold shelter offers warm place to sleep, compassion for guests

“This year is the first I got frost-bitten. The skin peeled off my fingers. It’s been pretty cold this year,” she said.

The shelter runs from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. With only 25 beds at the former Stuart Wood Elementary, there are line-ups every night to get in.

“Long waits. There are only so few pods that you have to be here for quite a while to be able to get your turn. We’re here usually two hours beforehand in order to get a bed,” noted Morris.

Another guest, Cross, lines up and tries to get into the Out of the Cold shelter every night. She, like many without a home in Kamloops, has very little.

“It means a lot,” she said holding back tears. “It’s the only resource I have right now. It meets all my needs right now.”

At Out of the Cold, they try to make the guests feel at home. There’s a “Family Wall” full of pictures of the guest and staff together.

Staff meet them where they’re at on any certain day, wanting to make them feel like family.

“We provide service that is very person-centred and really try to make relationships and help to know the person who’s coming to our doors,” noted Out of the Cold executive director Renee Stein. “So not just knowing what their name is, but knowing their story but where they’ve come from and really trying to validate and give a safe space for each person. I think that draws a lot of folks to Out of the Cold.”

Out of the Cold takes in people who are banned from other shelters. This winter, the program has seen more than 500 different faces come through, speaking to the need for more beds in the city.

Stein also wants the approach to the homeless and addiction to change.

“How do we change that lens of how we look at addiction, how do we look at homelessness, how do we look at trauma, and then what do we do with that,” she said. “Housing a body is one thing. Changing a life is another.”

Staff are trying to change one life at a home.

It’s the first year Out of the Cold is operating seven days a week, filling in after CMHA Kamloops opted out before the winter.

Guests like Morris appreciate everything the staff do.

“They work really hard to make sure we are all catered to in our own special way because we all need something different,” said Morris. “I can tell by the end of the day they’re exhausted and they still come back, so that makes me very happy.”

The shelter is scheduled to close March 31, but Out of the Cold would ultimately like to stay open all-year round.

by Chad Klassen

Out of the Cold shelter offers warm place to sleep, compassion for guests

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