The head of Kamloops’ downtown business association wants to know why there isn’t a homeless shelter on the North Shore.

Gay Pooler, executive director of the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association (KCBIA) appeared before city council on Tuesday to object to what she called a lack of consultation as services for homeless and addicted residents increase downtown.

“In addition to Emerald Centre, the mission [New Life Community Kamloops, formerly known as the New Life Mission], the CMHA Clubhouse, supervised-consumption site and overdose-prevention services, we now have the Out of the Cold Shelter at St. Paul’s Cathedral and the cold-weather shelter at Stuart Wood housing up to 70 people each night — and soon a storage facility for homeless at First and Lansdowne,” Pooler said, arguing the concentration of services in the area is having “detrimental” effects on local business.

Read more