A shelter set up at the former Greyhound Depot in Kamloops could be housing its first residents by the end of this week.
Carmin Mazzotta, the city’s social, housing and community development manager, told Castanet Kamloops Merit Place is the first shelter to be opened in the Sahali area.
“What that does is it really helps to provide some shelter system capacity in different parts of the city, and as we know, there are people experiencing homelessness in some of these different areas of the city,” Mazzotta said.
Merit Place is one of many new temporary housing facilities planned to open this year to address the city’s homelessness crisis.
“We know homelessness is growing, we know there's so much visibility about homelessness, there are people sleeping in front of businesses,” Alfred Achoba, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Kamloops branch said.
"Shelters actually make a difference. They create means for folks to be able to get services, to come indoors, but they also create opportunities for us to be able to work with the individuals we're seeing across the community who may be creating the issues, creating concerns that the neighbours have.”
While some residents have voiced concerns over a shelter moving into the area, Achoba said teams have engaged with community members to address their concerns.
“Our Community Services Officer patrols around the Merit Place shelter site. We're also going to be looking at with our crime prevention team if there are potential CPTED — Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design — pieces that that we might want to consider, whether that's access related or lighting,” Mazzotta said.
Achoba said they don’t want to ruffle any feathers in the community.
“We also have our peer program that's able to go out and clean up needles and pick up garbage, so those concerns we've heard we've actually worked with them to improve shelter services,” he said.
“But also to create that sense of community, because we're here to be good neighbours, and we are dedicated to that work.”
People currently staying at the Memorial Area will be gradually transferred to Merit Place.
“We're looking at opening our doors by the end of next week, probably Thursday, Friday, where we will move probably between five and 10 clients a day, and then have a break in between before moving in another round of clients in here,” Achoba explained.
