The Mustard Seed hopes to make the Yacht Club a 24/7 operation (Image Credit: CFJC Today)
WINTER SHELTERS

Pending new hires, Mustard Seed planning for 24-hour operation at Yacht Club

Nov 14, 2022 | 4:03 PM

KAMLOOPS — When The Mustard Seed Kamloops committed to running the Yacht Club’s temporary shelter last week, it was a stop-gap with freezing-cold temperatures, helping get people off the streets and into a warm place.

The non-profit wasn’t sure how long it could operate the 19-bed shelter, but it now says it can manage until March 31, 2023.

“This is an amazing opportunity for us to be helping out our brothers who are living on the streets in this new space — added shelter for them and added space where they feel safe, where they feel loved, where they feel warm,” said Director of Operations with The Mustard Seed Kamloops Nyasha Manyanye.

The Mustard Seed is not only going to operate the shelter all winter, but it plans to keep it open 24 hours a day.

“Currently, we are just running the shelter over the night. The plan is to get more staffing, so we can switch into the 24-hour operation, so that is something we are looking into. We are hoping we start in the next coming few weeks,” he said.

According to the city, there are 165 year-round shelter beds in Kamloops, and for a city that is struggling to find enough beds for the homeless, this short-term committment brings some stability to the crisis.

“These kinds of emergency response resources unfortunately show the scale of the crisis, and they are so desperately needed during extreme weather events like this and throughout the winter,” noted the city’s social, housing and community development manager, Carmin Mazzotta. “I think it speaks to the level of need in the community.”

For The Mustard Seed, which has been given funding by BC Housing to operate 24/7, the challenge now will be to hired about a dozen more people.

“We are looking at hiring potentially 10-to-15 people,” said Manyanye. “We are already in the process. We have already posted our job positions last week, so we are currently conducting interviews. We are hoping for 10-to-15 and adding to the [labour] pool we already have.”