EDITORIAL – City caught flat-footed with sale of The Loop drop-in property
(Image: CFJC Today)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
CHEERS OF APPROVAL have already begun over the impending closure of The Loop after the announced sale of its current leased building.
The Loop is a volunteer-run drop-in centre that provides meals and other occasional services for street people on the North Shore, and it has a chequered history there.
It is an eyesore in the heart of the Tranquille Corridor retail district, and has been the subject of frequent calls to police, bylaws and emergency services over the past few years. Disagreements among clients have sometimes become unruly out on the street.
At one point, the City declared it a nuisance property.
Recently, a portable fence was erected around the front of it to act as a screen in an attempt to assuage concerns about its unsightly appearance.
The building’s sale to realtor Brendan Shaw includes a 20-day vacate notice to The Loop. For its detractors, it couldn’t have come too soon.
Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
This is by far the best bang for your buck social recourse facility in the city. If this closes (big if, they have a lease and there are commercial tenancy laws) and nothing is initiated immediately to take it’s place, then this will be a giant step backwards. Expect petty crime, vandalism, graffetti and public unrest to all increase. Expect increases in open drug use, overdosing, health care, policing, bylaw, security costs to all go up. Expect pedestrian shopping traffic and business sales & profits to immediately decrease. Expect politicians to point fingers, blame others and call for more working groups but not fund them leaving them useless.
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Was this an Interior Health “issue” right from the word go?
Having a drop-in centre to help people is a humanitarian thing to do. No level of government seemed to have been able to do what Glen did for the marginalized folks who have called that place their haven. He likely helped save some lives during the winter months.
What “The Loop” tried to do was address mental health issues, basic needs for food & water and a place where people could get together. Sooner or later, the negative impacts would outweigh the positives the public would see.
I don’t expect a magical municipal “Four Pillar Centre” come from Councillor Katie’s rhetoric. Even her bench buddy Councillor O’Reilly won’t be much help to her on this one. Mayor Reid had some great thoughts after his personal experience with some of these folks on his late night/early morning interactions.
Maybe if they could get together as a group of 9 for once, admit that Community Services won’t be able to handle this much longer and these folks at “The Loop” deserve to be under the care of Interior Health at a care facility, we’d see something positive come from this.
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My hope is that we see a full migration to city hall grounds. Keep this front and centre for council. Maybe they’ll wake up. Probably not.
Considering chartering a bus on eviction day to help out with transportation.
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I kinda disagree with the interior health part, I see no reason to believe that interior health could be as helpful as the loop but they most certainly would spend millions of taxpayer $ as opposed to the loops zero tax $.
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I would like to take this opportunity to extend an open invitation to any city councillor, highly paid city administrator, Loop volunteers and the CEOs of the shelter facilities, to do whatever it takes to relocate The Loop next to their homes and neighbourhoods. Let’s put those words into actions. Show us all how it’s done. Lead by example.
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So much nonsense all around hard to keep track of it all.
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In a recent Castanet piece, the operator of the Loop, Glenn Hilke, said to the effect that those complaining about the property were doing so because they didn’t like poor people.
This was an insult to the local residents who have had to put up with this filthy establishment for years. No Mr. Hilke, people aren’t complaining because Loop clients are poor. They are complaining because of the multiple and continued bylaw infractions, the crime and chaos the site brings to the neighbourhood and businesses, the discarded needles, human waste and theft.
The Loop now appeals to the broader community for a place to go after being evicted. Anyone that accepts such a bargain best be prepared for years of belligerence from the operators of The Loop and crime and chaos from their clientele.
Good riddance. Finally, someone has done what the city would not. In the face out enormous resistance, it was a realtor who had the backbone to listen to the greater good.
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A realtor gone out of the “comfort zone” for the greater good…really now?
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Well, as he put it, the building stays and The Loop is now homeless. I’m not really fussed about the motivations behind it.
There’s a kind of irony here and some hard lessons. Glenn and Loop volunteers could have chosen to take complaints seriously. Work with the community. Instead, they were accusatory, demeaning and dismissive to those making complaints, aggressive on social media and generally disregarded the impact on the surrounding areas.
Believe it or not, you can be kind to people without spreading chaos. This wasn’t working and it has been an unacceptable blight on what is trying to be a vibrant city neighbourhood.
Will the bums and addicts migrate or spread to the sidewalks? Let’s see. There are bylaws to address that also. It just takes will. The cracks are rapidly growing on this whole charade and we are seeing the start of what will be a rapid correction.
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