Out of the Cold celebrates successes as it prepares for another winter in Stuart Wood

“We don’t have enough shelter beds in Kamloops so then how do we ensure that everybody gets a chance to access supports because without those supports, folks can’t have the ability to move forward.”

One of those people is Dylon McLemore, who’s been a client at the shelter for the past two months. He got caught up in gang life a few years ago and spent time in jail in Prince George. He’s now part of the Solid Base program, which is designed to help guide people from custody to community.

“I’m focusing on building myself,” McLemore said. “I don’t feel this is permanent but its more like family here because the staff treats me well. There’s a stigma around shelters, but there a lot of great people that come with different stories. I’ve seen people do good things and they’ve changed daily.”

McLemore told CFJC he has to wear an ankle monitor as he was “derailing” his life, but he said this reset has also allowed him to focus on his artistic talent, adding it’s a way for him to better express himself.

“I started at a very young age and it’s just progressed over the years,” McLemore said. “It helps me relax and helps bring out a lot of things within my heart to express with art.”

McLemore says he hopes to work with children so he can share his story, in the hopes of steering them out of – and even away from – gang life.

“I’ve got a lot of learning still within myself,” he added. “We do a lot of [Alcoholics Anonymous] groups and things here and the staff alone have helped me reach my goals. Every goal I have set for myself, I’ve been able to crush it, so it’s a great opportunity for me being here.”

It’s stories like McLemore’s that Stein hopes people connect with, as she says the 30-year-old has been making all the right moves. Stein said McLemore has aspirations of going to university and he’s even been invited to speak to high school students.

“He’s definitely an inspirational story, meaning from where he’s come from and where he is now,” Stein said. “I’m really excited to see how he’s going to be a blessing to the community in the future. His heart is to help others not enter the same journey that he did.”

Out of Cold has 35 provincially-funded beds, but it relies on community donations as on most nights Stein said the agency is providing care to at least twice as many people.

“Over the course of the Thanksgiving weekend, we had 140 beds over four days to give out and we saw 295 people attend Out Of The Cold to receive services like meals, showers, laundry or just to connect with someone to figure out, ‘How do I make those next steps? Where do I go from here?'” Stein said.

“We served thanksgiving dinner to 91 people, so we are a very busy shelter. We provide the only drop in space in the City of Kamloops and we’ve been doing that every night since we started way back when over at St. Vincent De Paul.”

Founded in 2007, the Out of the Cold Shelter Society began operating at St. Vincent De Paul and moved to St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, where it was until 2019.

It then partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association to operate out of Stuart Wood School for three days a week in 2021 before expanding to seven days a week in 2022, where it has been ever since.

Out of the Cold said it supported 770 people in June this year, compared to 967 in the same month last year. This past May, it noted there were 1,131 people supported, up from the 929 in May 2025. These numbers do not include the 10-bed Olive Branch shelter for seniors, which also remained at capacity.

“In 2025, we served over 44,000 meals from this shelter,” Stein said. “It’s an awful lot, and I think that really speaks to the need.”

Stein said these high numbers speak to the need for shelters like Out of the Cold, as well as other types of housing and programs, to help people get their lives back on track.

“We have a more folks experiencing homelessness in Kamloops than ever before and we don’t have enough supports for them,” Stein lamented. “The majority of the folks who come here have hopes and dreams and aspirations and skills and potential, and so how do we help them move forward?”

“Dylon is a wonderful example of somebody choosing to move his life forward every single day.”

“If it wasn’t for here, I’d be back doing crazy things and just being no good,” added McLemore. “That’s why I wanted to make that change and I’ve been trying for the last couple of years, but now having that discipline, I’m on a new path.”

by Victor Kaisar

Out of the Cold celebrates successes as it prepares for another winter in Stuart Wood

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