The summer heat is driving more and more homeless people into cooling shelters in Kamloops.
Out of the Heat Program Coordinator Renee Stein says the homeless situation in Kamloops is serious with about 400 people either without a home or in a precarious housing situation.
Stein says the homeless don’t have access to air conditioning or in many cases even public places that have it.
“A lot of different things we would do say go to movies or go to a friend’s house they might not have access to do that. Also too with people with different mental health diagnoses they may not be aware they are overheating to the point that they are. It is really important to bring people in and to give them a chance to get refreshed and to have supportive staff to see where they are at health wise and to make sure they are in a safe environment.”
She says her staff are seeing more and more homeless people they have never seen before.