Photo of the Gathering Place (c. 2023) in the parking lot at 48 West Victoria/via The Mustard Seed

A day space for those on the streets in Kamloops is set to reopen Wednesday in downtown Kamloops.

The Mustard Seed’s Gathering Place is set up in the parking lot outside the Aboriginal Friendship Center’s storage facility at 48 Victoria Street West.

The Seed’s Operations Director for Kamloops, Nyasha Manyanye, says since opening in 2021, they normally provide services for around 50 people a day.

However, he suggests they will be monitoring the intake numbers this year with the impending closure of The Loop on the north shore.

“I think there’s likely to be an overflow of people coming from the north shore, for sure,” said Manyanye.  “But from my experience, working on the streets with the folks that we help, normally they start to divide. Those on the north shore, they don’t normally like to come to the downtown.”

Manyanye says this year, they’ve made some changes to the site itself.

“This year, with the help from the City of Kamloops through the Reaching Home funding, we were able to do some site improvements,” said Manyanye.  “Just trying to make the space more accommodating, so that we can have more folks coming and spend more time inside the space.”

Manyanye says people will be allowed to enter the Gathering Place on a “behavior based” approach.

“So you can still come in if you’re intoxicated, as long as you’re not going to cause problems to everybody in the space,” said Manyanye.  “However, we are not going to allow drug use, or open carrying of weapons, or using of alcohol.”

Manyanye says local businesses in the area have been given a mail-out, informing them of phone numbers to call in case of disturbances or incidents connected to the Gathering Place.