The Mayor of Kamloops will meet with BC’s Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister on Monday to discuss housing related issues.

Ken Christian says it is a chance to revisit ongoing conversations. He says Selina Robinson has been true to her word in terms of adding supports to the Kamloops housing menu.

“There are some people that there mental health condition, chronic mental illness, just does not lend itself to them being comfortable in shelters or in some of the supports we put in place. I think we really need to look at housing for the chronically mentally ill in this community and in other communities.”

Christian says when you look at situations like we had last week with the frigid cold weather, and with some people perhaps unable to be housed in a group facility, it puts people at great risk.

“So we’ve been very interested in what those numbers have been and where those people came from. So that gives us a pretty good idea of what the gap is in terms of our ability to house people in this community and so we want to use that data and relay that data to the government.”

Christian says there are people that have a mental issue that prevents them from being comfortable in shelters and so we need to look at housing for the chronically mentally ill in this community and other communities.

“Particularly when you have weather like we had last week. There are some people that really when they’re off their meds they can’t take care of themselves. They have conditions like bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia things like that that don’t allow them to be congregated with others and so they’re at great risk.”