SHELTER FOR ALL – Addressing homelessness in Kamloops
Seeking shelter beside the front entrance to City Hall. (Image: Mel Rothenburger.)
By PETER TSIGARIS
Thompson Rivers University
Prelude: This editorial is part of a book series I co-authored with my senior undergraduate students, titled In the Shadow of the Hills: Socioeconomic Struggles in Kamloops, published by TRU Open Press.
Garima Mehta.
Chapter 6, authored by Garima Mehta, explores the socioeconomic roots and pathways of homelessness in Kamloops. Below, I reflect on and summarize key findings from her chapter. For full details, see Chapter 6: Surviving the Streets: Unpacking the Economics of Homelessness.
Homelessness in Kamloops
Homelessness in Kamloops has become more visible and reveals a system that has failed to support the least well-off. The 2023 Point-in-Time Count recorded a 51% increase in homelessness since 2021, a figure that reflects the erosion of our social safety and support systems. Garima Mehta’s research frames this issue through both data and interviews, offering a perspective on the inflows and outflows of homelessness, its root causes, and the pressing need for coordinated solutions.
Homelessness is an avoidable outcome of a system in disrepair. Some people experience short-term displacement after a job loss or eviction; others remain unhoused for years, caught in cycles of poverty, trauma, and addiction. Indigenous residents, veterans, women fleeing abuse, and youth aging out of the foster care are especially at risk.
Figure 1: Kamloops 2023 Point-in time Count, Image created by Napkin AI
Bathtub Model
Garima developed a simple but powerful metaphor, a “bathtub” model, to illustrate the homelessness issues. The lack of income, family support, affordable housing, adequate mental health and addiction services, and the failure of systems like foster care to support transitions into stable adulthood are all key inflows into homelessness.
Meanwhile, outflows remain constrained: too few supportive housing units, limited treatment beds, and overstretched nonprofit organizations. Unless we reduce the inflows, or “turn off the tap,” and simultaneously accelerate the outflows, the water in the tub will keep on rising. Focusing only on increasing outflows will not solve the problem if inflows continue to grow.
Figure 2: Bathtub model created by Garima Mehta. The model is a visual metaphor showing how people enter and exit homelessness. Inflows include poverty, housing shortages, and systemic failures. Outflows include supported housing, recovery, and reintegration. When inflows exceed outflows, the level of homelessness rises. Reducing the “water level” requires slowing inflows and accelerating outflows.
Garima’s analysis, using local income data from Census Canada, shows that thousands of Kamloops residents live close to the edge. Strengthening our social safety net, through income assistance, housing subsidies, and addiction support, is a social investment. Reducing the extreme poverty of homeless people is considered a pure public good or service: the benefits of such policies are non-rival and non-excludable, contributing to a more egalitarian community. The invisible hand of the market will not provide this outcome, public intervention is required.
“This model helped me visualize how homelessness can persist over time even if people are exiting. If more people are falling in than climbing out, the tub overflows.” — Garima Mehta
The new 2024 provincial housing initiative, including 500 new homes, shelters, and transition units offers hope. These interventions are projected to slow inflows and expand outflows, especially for seniors, women, and those seeking recovery. It is one of the most targeted responses we have seen to date in Kamloops.
Figure 3: “The housing continuum” [modified from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, 2018] by Statistics Canada (2023a) is used under the Statistics Canada Open License.
Concluding remarks
In confronting homelessness, we must move beyond fragmented fixes and begin to see our city as a large social community, one in which we allocate resources where they are most needed. A compassionate society, like a caring family, offers more support to the child who struggles than to the one who thrives. This isn’t just an ethical argument; it’s a Rawlsian vision of justice. The ultimate measure of a community’s social welfare function is how it treats its most vulnerable members.
The challenge ahead is immense, but Kamloops is not alone. This semester, two of my students are examining how successful cities across the globe are addressing homelessness through coordinated, inclusive, and scalable policies. I look forward to writing about these solutions in a future editorial.
Until then, we may remember housing is not a luxury, it is the foundation for human dignity, and our approach as a community will be how we care for those with the least.
References available in Chapter 6: Surviving the Streets: Unpacking the Economics of Homelessness by Garima Mehta.
Tsigaris, P., Awad, A., Forbes, C., Izett, P., Kadaleevanam, U., Mehta, G., Noor, S., Simms, O., & Thomson A. (2024), In the Shadow of the Hills: Socioeconomic Struggles in Kamloops, TRU Open Press, https://shadowofthehills.pressbooks.tru.ca/
ArmchairMayor.ca 
This study seems to focus on the street-entrenched homeless population, which is fine, but misleading. Many homeless or housing-insecure people are never seen: they’re single parents or seniors, couch-surfing with friends and relatives, living in campers and cars, etc. they don’t have drug problems; they’re not mentally ill. They’ve been caught in the web of rising rents. Homeless counts do not account for these people. Perhaps this is why social housing for the drug-addicted or mentally ill far outpaces subsidized housing for seniors and families.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment. The full paper includes a broader definition of homelessness, which does encompass the scenario you’ve highlighted—often referred to as “hidden homelessness.” This includes individuals who are couch-surfing, living in vehicles, or otherwise not visibly homeless. As you’ve rightly noted, this form of homelessness is particularly difficult to measure, which is why it often goes underrepresented in official counts.
For this paper, the analysis focused on data from the City of Kamloops’ Point-in-Time Count, as it was the most comprehensive and accessible dataset available. While the Count recognizes that hidden homelessness is often missed, the paper also acknowledges that this data alone is insufficient to fully capture the scope of homelessness and should be complemented with other sources for a more complete understanding of the issue.
The paper also explores the role of income insecurity and housing affordability in contributing to the ‘inflows’ into homelessness—drawing from the ‘bathtub model’ analogy. It emphasizes that effective, long-term solutions must involve strengthening housing policies and social safety nets to prevent individuals and families from entering homelessness in the first place.
Importantly, the paper argues that homelessness is a multifaceted issue that can affect anyone, regardless of mental health or substance use. This is why broad, inclusive, and personalized approaches to care and support are essential. Tailored solutions that address the unique needs of individuals—not just specific demographics—are key to addressing homelessness in a holistic and sustainable way. The paper outlines projects underway in Kamloops that specifically target seniors and families.
Tsigaris, P., Awad, A., Forbes, C., Izett, P., Kadaleevanam, U., Mehta, G., Noor, S., Simms, O., & Thomson A. (2024), In the Shadow of the Hills: Socioeconomic Struggles in Kamloops, TRU Open Press, https://shadowofthehills.pressbooks.tru.ca/
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Sorry but we don’t have a “compassionate”society. But we do have a society of superficiality, frivolity and always willing to shun personal responsibilities and accountability.
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