Stuart Wood Shelter (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

WINTER SHELTERS

First true taste of winter has Kamloops shelter operators pushing capacity

Feb 3, 2025 | 4:50 PM

KAMLOOPS — An arctic air mass is enveloping much of British Columbia, bringing with it strong winds through to at least Wednesday (Feb. 5) — and possibly beyond — for inland areas of the province like Kamloops.

With windchills approaching -25 C in Kamloops on Monday (Feb. 3) and Tuesday, shelter operators are again expanding their services to ensure nobody is left out in the cold.

“We are using the Pathways site — like our front lobby — as kind of a staging area, if needed, so we can get shelter services for other folks,” said Jeremy Cain, outreach director for ASK Wellness.

“Obviously, we aren’t staffed up or don’t have the resources for a full day space, but when the weather hits like this, you just have make sure you welcome folks in, kind of access them, figure out what they need and then go from there.”

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The North Shore access hub, or Pathways, was not intended to serve as an extreme weather shelter or a day space, but Mother Nature has forced the hands of the facility’s management.

“You have to balance the needs of the folks who are living here versus the people who are coming in. But while cold weather is happening, particularly during this week while temperatures are down, we will do the best we can to get folks in to make sure they don’t struggle,” added Cain.

CMHA Kamloops had been operating 35 extra beds during extreme cold snaps, awaiting the opening of the access hub. Executive Director Alfred Achoba says the agency won’t those be shutting down, and is in fact looking into possible further expansion.

“The goal is not to turn anyone away,” said Achoba, “and I was getting messages on [X.com] last night, asking if there was more space and we are committed to making sure we don’t turn anyone away. Within our programs, we will be able to bring in more people and outside of those (extra) 10 beds, we were able to bring people indoors where they can sleep on the couch and just warm up.”

Last night, all 35 extreme weather beds were filled by 9:00 p.m., with CMHA then working with partners including Out of the Cold, Mustard Seed and ASK Wellness to ensure everybody was kept warm.

“I got a message from the Envision (Shuttle) Team right away at 8:00 p.m., saying rather than run it until noon, they would run it until 4:00 p.m. to try to move people around,” Achoba said. “We decided the best thing to do was to keep going and get people indoors. And the beds filled up by 9:00 p.m..”

“We connected with other partners to make sure where there was space for people to move, we were able to triage them.”

The City of Kamloops denotes ‘extreme cold’ as -5 C but no hard and fast figures are set in stone for operators.

“For the winter, we are trying to approach it in the same way — which is, don’t let anybody come away without some kind of a plan,” said Cain.