A highly-anticipated move by the Mayor of Kamloops to have City Council pass his notice-of-motion, asking for funds to help the homeless in the city find their way back to their home towns never came to fruition at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Reid Hamer-Jackson — warned ahead of time that his pitch had issues — withdrew his proposal, saying it was based on new information he had been given.

“I have to amend it,” Hamer-Jackson told council during the session.  “Councillor [Katie] Neustaeter this [Tuesday] morning wanted me to amend it and take things out of it and things like that. I just learned, like I said, part of at 4 O’clock this [Tuesday] morning in the media.”

During the session, acting CAO Byron McCorkell explained to the Mayor and Council that the money Hamer-Jackson had been hoping to access through the federally-administered Reaching Home Fund isn’t available.

“We don’t adjudicate the money. It’s done through a community group. The community group has funds returned they’re unused by groups, and then they reallocate them, which they have done,” explained McCorkell. “They have performed their duty under the terms of the Reaching Home Fund. So when asked ‘is there any money left in the Reaching Home Fund,’ no, it’s all been allocated.”

Hamer-Jackson’s proposal had been to use “surplus” money provided to Kamloops through Ottawa’s Reaching Home Fund to provide funds for people who don’t have access to shelter spaces in Kamloops to return to their homes or other communities where they have better supports.

Hamer-Jackson has indicated to council he may bring back a revised proposal at a later date.

“I think this needs to happen fairly soon. Winter’s coming. It’s getting cold. I believe this is something that we need to move forward on.”