Image Credit: Bluegreen Architecture

By James Peters

Community Access Hub

Developer says involvement in access hub will help alleviate North Shore concerns

Nov 6, 2024 | 2:43 PM

KAMLOOPS — More details are emerging about preliminary plans for a social services community access hub on the Kamloops North Shore.

ARPA Investments says it has purchased the former Butler Auto and RV properties, located at 118 and 142 Tranquille Road, with plans to develop the sites.

In a news release, ARPA’s Joshua Knaak says the company has an agreement in place with BC Housing for a 20-month lease of one of the properties — 142 Tranquille — to host a shelter at the site. The facility will be operated by ASK Wellness.

In the meantime, ARPA will design a more permanent development for the lots.

“By leasing this space to BC Housing, we were able to ensure that the North Shore Business Improvement Association’s key principles for social service facilities for people who are unhoused were met, as well as other requirements we believe to be necessary to ensure a positive integration with the community,” said Knaak.

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Some North Shore property owners have expressed concern with the access hub concept, but Knaak says ARPA’s involvement with BC Housing and ASK Wellness is meant, in part, to help alleviate those concerns. He notes ARPA and ASK have been neighbours for many years and the social agency has demonstrated a “strong commitment to being good neighbours.”

The access hub is touted as offering more services than a traditional shelter would, including on-site health services, counselling, showers, bathrooms and connections with housing options.

“We look forward to helping facilitate this much needed Community Access Hub and working with BC Housing, the City of Kamloops, and ASK Wellness to ensure this integrates well in our community,” added Knaak. “And in a few years’ time, we anticipate breaking ground on new developments at these sites that will further add to the vibrancy, energy, and growth the North Shore of Kamloops is already experiencing.”

Knaak’s involvement with the access hub project is the reason Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson was advised he needed to leave council chambers during debate on the facility Tuesday (Nov. 5). Hamer-Jackson has filed a defamation suit against Knaak, stemming from a 2023 incident at a local nightclub.