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New homeless shelter in Merritt Laísa Condé newsroom@merrittherald.com
The local Knights Inn Hotel is set to become Merritt’s new homeless shelter. At the Aug. 27 council meeting, Cynthia White, chief administrative officer at the City of Merritt, confirmed that she met with BC Housing on Friday, Aug. 23 to talk about the rumours on the new shelter. “They have confirmed they’ve set a lease with the Knights Inn,” she said. “That lease will start, I believe, Sept. 1, but they are not anticipating being open until probably the end of October.” White also confirmed that based on the current bylaws that the city has, the new shelter will adhere to the current zoning bylaws for the area as there are no restrictions that would prevent the establishment of the shelter at the hotel. Adding to that, even if the area was not zoned appropriately for the shelter, White said that the city still wouldn’t be able to do anything to prevent the establishment of the shelter. “Their operators and private property owners, who are contracted by BC Housing, are immune to zoning,” she said. “They do not have to follow our zoning bylaw.” White said in the meeting that BC Housing has assured that the shelter at Knights Inn will be a very different setup from the Desert Inn shelter, which faced
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criticism for its unsuitability. According to White, the new shelter facility will be equipped with fencing, increased security cameras and additional staff to ensure a more controlled environment. “There will be a lot more of their typical security operations,” White added. “Only people who are currently sheltered there will be able to access it.” White acknowledged that it will be difficult for some people to accept it, given what they’ve seen and continue to see with the encampment by Desert Inn, “but ultimately, if we do not have a shelter in the community, we must allow camping overnight.” “There has to be somewhere in the city that they are allowed to camp. We may want to review the current location and determine if that is the most appropriate location or if there’s somewhere else that we would like people to camp,” White added. White also reassured that the City of Merritt will be working closely with BC Housing and the operator to ensure that the shelter has minimal impact in the neighbourhood, that they are keeping people in the shelter and its neighbours safe as well as their properties unaffected by the shelter. The city is also revising its Good Neighbour and Parks bylaws to ensure that all residents, including those in shelters and campers, adhere to standards that main- See TOWN HALL Page 3
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