Rising waters on the Thompson Rivers in Kamloops means homeless people are having to move along.

The city’s acting supervisor of social and community development, Ty Helgason, tells NL News some of the places where people can sleep on the riverbanks are now underwater.

“We are aware that rising rivers are having an affect on this population. On that map it shows where overnight temporary shelters are permitted. There are some zones for when the river is high, but even those zones that are further up are being encroached upon by the rising rivers this year.”

Helgason says the city is encouraging people affected to using shelter spaces.

“Kind of what we’re hoping to happen is outreach workers, bylaw, anybody having contact with these people to kind of push them towards our shelter spaces at this time. As we have the additional capacity to assist them, and it’s going to be all around safer for them.”

He says the city helped open shelter beds because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are 25 shelter beds open on Royal Avenue on the North Shore, and 50 beds available at the Memorial Arena in downtown Kamloops.

Helgason also says businesses and homeowners in many areas of Kamloops are reporting an increase in crime in recent weeks, but he couldn’t say exactly why, saying the issue has come up long before the rivers have.

“We’ve done our best not to kind of centralize the additional [shelter] spaces anywhere, and maintain that split of the stress on the communities.”

He adds the COVID-19 is making the street population more visible.