Kamloops mayoral contender O’Reilly outlines plan for shelters and supportive housing

KAMLOOPS — Mayoral candidate Mike O’Reilly has unveiled his first of two major campaign planks ahead of October’s vote.

Destined to be one of the main issues on voters’ minds, O’Reilly is proposing a new approach to emergency shelters and supportive housing in Kamloops, proposing to utilize city-owned land along Mission Flats Road to create what he calls a “campus of care.”

“While this won’t happen overnight, it’s something to work toward, and again, this is deemed a surplus property,” outlined O’Reilly. “From there, we do have the office building that could be used and rented to Interior Health and other service providers to provide full wrap-around care and services for our city’s most vulnerable population. The shelter space itself would be rented from the City of Kamloops by BC Housing, and that would be an appraised market value.”