The Kamloops mayor promised bus tickets to send unhoused people away. Here's where that proposal stands

The mayor of Kamloops, B.C., shelved a motion last week to help transport homeless people from the Interior city to their home communities, but later the same day filed another motion with a new funding proposal for the same program.

On Sept. 12, Reid Hamer-Jackson withdrew his motion to give bus or air travel vouchers to unhoused people who want to return home — something he promised during his election campaign in the fall.

However, shortly after withdrawing his motion, Hamer-Jackson put forward a new notice of motion suggesting seed money for the proposed program could come out of the city's $22,000 budget for catered meals.

"Put an end to paid meals for council engagement, effective immediately," the mayor said. 

"This opportunity to allocate funds to a better cause could potentially help fund other initiatives."

Hamer-Jackson originally hoped the idea to send unhoused people out of the city could be funded by the federal government's Reaching Home grant system for reducing homelessness. However, city administrators said that money is no longer available.

Hamer-Jackson indicated his plans to continue pursuing the idea.

"You haven't spent the last three years on the streets talking to these people that are not getting the support that they need," he told council at the Sept. 12 meeting.

"They do want rides home.  …  I will withdraw my motion for now and hopefully we can get them some help."

Hamer-Jackson's new motion will be debated at the next city council meeting on Sept. 26.

'We are full'

Some social service providers in Kamloops already have programs to help cover the travel costs of people wanting to leave the city.

Between April 1 and Aug. 31 of 2023, the ASK Wellness Society relocated 18 people, according to CEO Bob Hughes. From April 1, 2022 to March 21, 2023, 25 people were relocated.

Out of the Cold Society executive director Renee Stein, who was at last week's council meeting, says outreach workers at the former Stuart Wood Elementary shelter regularly facilitate this type of transportation, adding that it requires dedicated funding.

"Right now we don't have a budget for that. The cost is incurred by the shelter, which then has to be taken from another pot of service," she said.

She said the society also struggles with other communities sending homeless people to Kamloops to access the city's services. 

"We do get a lot of phone calls from other communities saying, 'I'm putting somebody on the bus,'" she said.

"I'll be very honest with them and let them know that we are full, don't send them to Kamloops because we don't have the ability to intake more folks. There's a lot of communities that are quite desperate."

Ongoing concerns about homelessness

In 2021, there were an estimated 206 unhoused people in  Kamloops, according to a city report. Another count was done in April 2023, the results of which are expected to be released this fall. 

The city's homeless population and the agencies that support them have been top of mind for the mayor since before he was elected last fall. 

During the election campaign, he questioned the effectiveness of the shelter system in Kamloops and asked for B.C. Housing to fund a review of local shelters.

"We need to get control of the shelters and get them to be accountable," he told CBC at the time.  

In November 2022, less than a month after he was elected, shelter operators asked him to stop suddenly showing up with someone needing a bed, sometimes in the middle of the night.

That same month, a lawyer for ASK Wellness Society sent a letter to Hamer-Jackson asking him to stop making "defamatory" comments about the organization and its leadership in interviews with media.