Sign at the site of the former Bulter Auto and RV sales lot at 142 Tranquille, which is now home to the Pathways homeless shelter/via Google Street View
While the contentious Pathways homeless shelter along the foot of Tranquille will be sticking around for a couple more years at its current location, the owner of the property is suggesting the City’s life-line will be its last at that site.
ARPA Investments co-owner Joshua Knaak tells Radio NL the additional 20-month extension of the Temporary Use Permit granted by City Council this week is not going to impact his company’s longer-term plans to redevelop the broader area of Tranquille.
“We’re moving ahead with the development at 108 (Tranquille Road),” noted Knaak in conversation with Radio NL following the decision by council on Tuesday. “In the next 6 to 8 months, we’ll start [the] design process for the 142 (Tranquille Road) site where the shelter is right now.”
He notes the additional 20-month window granted to BC Housing and Pathways operator ASK Wellness also fits within ARPA’s redevelopment timelines as well.
“By the time you get design figured out, development permits, building permits, all those kinds of things… it’s 18-months anyway,” noted Knaak.
Building housing a former Yoga Studio and the Bridgeview Theatre at 108 Tranquille Road, which is due for redevelopment as a mixed-use residental complex by ARPA Investments/via Google Street View
As that process takes place, Knaak argues that Pathways will be able to provide a service to that community moving forward for close to the next two-years.
“I think a lot of times the term ‘the impacts [on] the community’ has been thrown around but forgetting the fact that these folks are in the community as well,” suggested Knaak.
At the same time, the developer argues that City Hall should be increasingly concerned with — what he contends — is a growing number of people who may be abusing the City’s current policies connected to encampments along the river fronts.
Under provincial guidelines, municipalities are able to allow overnight camping in areas which could be considered parks or recreation areas, but limited to the overnight hours only, with expectations those campsites are to be broken down each day.
However, many are not, drawing the ire of some within the north Kamloops community who worry the encampments are endangering the broader community by way of potential criminal activity, pollution and the risk of fire.
A person views a fire next to the North Thompson River in an area known to have homeless encampments on Thursday, April 23, 2026 near Schubert Drive and Patricia Street in north Kamloops/via Desiree Evancio on Facebook
“It’s hard to monitor whether those camps are taken down during the day because there’s very little way for anybody there to access it — other than the people who live on it,” suggested Knaak, who — while running the main redevelopment firm in the area — also lives in the neighborhood. “There were reports last year of [the] ‘hardening’ of shelters, trenches being dug and spikes being set up.”
“Those aren’t people that are in Pathways,” added Knaak. “Those are people who — perhaps — were kicked out of Pathways because they weren’t willing to live by the rules.”
Moving forward, Knaak says with the shelter remaining part of the area’s dynamic until early 2028, the opportunity exists for the community to work together to rehabilitate the reputation of Pathways.
He suggests the best way to do that is to keep the lines of communication open.
“That has been happening. I think that can improve with joint efforts through the CSO’s [Community Services Officers], with RCMP, with everybody around there,” said Knaak of an elevated push recently by stakeholders to keep people in the neighborhood informed of what’s going on with Pathways. “I know there’s a group now there that includes residents and businesspeople from around the area, as well as ASK Wellness and the City.”
Knaak says community concern around Pathways seemed to grow as the shelter itself began to become more established.
“To be honest, there were meetings happening at the beginning, but people weren’t showing up at the meetings because, for a period of time there, there were no problems.”
Part of the interior layout of the Pathways shelter on Tranquille/via ASK Wellness
The 44-bed shelter opened in late January, 2025, after delays in the re-design and reconstruction of the former Bulter Auto and RV sales offices kept it from opening during in the fall of 2024.
The property was provided by ARPA Investments to BC Housing for an initial 20-month lease to help the City and the Province continue their search for a permanent home for the so-called North Shore Access Hub, which has been under discussion among community leaders the past few years.
Pathways itself was developed as part of that broader Access Hub design — a location for which still eludes the City.
An initial location for the Access Hub had reportedly been found, but a deal failed to materialize after the City and the property owner were unable to come to terms in the 11th hour of the deal.
