The Mayor of Barriere is donating $500 to The Loop in Kamloops, while encouraging others to donate what they can.
Ward Stamer says his donation comes as The Loop operator, Glenn Hilke, told NL News he isn’t sure if he will be able to operate past tomorrow.
“When I heard Glenn’s story this morning, I thought ‘good for him,'” Stamer said. “He is crying for assistance and I thought, ‘well, if I can give him $500, that gives him one more night.'”
“Everybody is under stress with inflation and gas prices and everything else, I get it, but we have got to be thinking about the other people too. If it means that we donate the price of a cup of coffee or whatever it is, it will all add up. You certainly don’t have to try to match what I did.”
Speaking to NL News, Stamer also said he couldn’t believe that Hilke said he was literally picking people up off the streets of Kamloops to try and take them to get warm.
“Is it ideal? Is it exactly the model they want to have? Well maybe it is not, but in the meantime these poor people are freezing to death and nobody seems to want to do anything about it among the powers that be,” Stamer said.
“It is not a municipal responsibility, it is a provincial responsibly, but they just drop it in our lap and expect us to do something about it.”
Hilke says it costs about $600 a night to operate The Loop as a warming facility, noting he will need about $6,000 a week if he were to operate as a 24-hour winter homeless shelter with meals.
“I can’t believe that he was up till 4:30 this morning going around town picking up people that were lying on the side of the road and bringing them up to the hospital,” Stamer added. “I mean, great for Glenn to do that. I just felt that if what he needs is a bit of financial help, it is the least that I can do.”
Speaking on the NL Morning News, Hilke said that he has lost hope in getting interim funding from BC Housing or the City Kamloops, hence the call to the private sector.
“The money is there, so something has to give here because you know the situation is not getting any better. There have been events as you know, where people have died trying to keep themselves warm,” Hilke said. “I’m hoping that they will come through because it impacts the whole community.”
“For the 42 people that are in the Loop tonight, where would they be when businesses wake up in the morning, in front of your business behind your business? Where are they going to the bathroom in front of your business or behind your business? No, they were inside the Loop going to the bathroom.”
Last year, the City declared The Loop as a nuisance property, deeming it unfit to run as a shelter, something Hilke referenced on Monday morning.
“The whole nuisance status that was slapped on us wrongly,” he said. “We’re not a nuisance, and we’re a solution. We’re a solution-based, proactive organization. I think it’s just time that if that gets recognized.”
– With files from Brett Mineer
