File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Curtis Goodrum

SHELTER SUCCESS

North Shore shelter impresses neighbouring businesses, changes minds

Mar 31, 2025 | 5:04 PM

KAMLOOPS—The North Shore Pathways Shelter in the former Butler Auto and RV lot on Tranquille Road has been open for about three months. While not everything has gone according to plan for the shelter, it seems to be under less scrutiny than in previous months.

“We participate with the shelter regularly. We have a monthly meeting with the shelter and with surrounding businesses to discuss issues that arise from the shelter’s operations itself. Some of the issues that we’re facing now, however, are not related to the shelter. They’re related to the congregation outside of the shelter’s footprint,” said Jeremy Heighton, the executive director of the North Shore Business Association.

In the past, many local business owners had been critical of the shelter.

“The shelter, I’m not confident in. I just don’t think we have the right process,” Drago’s Autopro owner-operator Rob Guido told CFJC News back in July, 2024. “I don’t think we’re ready for that.”

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Since last year, Guido has had a change in opinion on the shelter.

“I was pretty tough on the whole idea right from the get-go,” Guido told CFJC News Monday (March 31). “As you know, speculation of what may be and having this investment here. I’ve got to give my hats off to (operator) ASK Wellness and every organization that’s part of it. Crime’s been down. People aren’t hanging around the shop in the morning, sleeping underneath our awning,” said Guido.

After winning many over with the shelter, ASK Wellness continues to focus on trying to bring its community together.

“For us to do this, we wanted to make sure we would do it well. We’ve been really attentive to the neighbours — both commercial and residential. I’ve tried to work with the NSBIA, to ensure that our teams are working in the neighborhood to minimize any kind of impact that a shelter like this might have,” said Bob Hughes, the executive director of ASK Wellness.

For Guido, the shelter has provided him and others with opportunities they wouldn’t have had without it.

“They have the streets cleaned up. I’m not hearing anything,” he said. “I’ve got some really good relationships with some of the guys that are part of that. We sit there and talk outside the shop — they’re looking to work for me. Sometimes I do pay them a little bit of money to do some cleanup.

As the shelter continues to operate, it will continue to have detractors — however, many in that area are comfortable with the shelter remaining operational.