Katherine's Place set to welcome Kamloops kids at risk of homelessness starting next month

Katherine's Place open soon

Dozens more youth facing homelessness will have a place to stay now that Katherine’s Place is set to open along Tranquille Road.

A Way Home Kamloops held an open house on Tuesday to show off the new facility, which has 39 apartment units and other amenities such as a TV room, communal kitchen, common area and meeting and office spaces for staff.

The supportive housing project for people age 19 to 26 is a first of its kind for the organization. It’s set to open to residents on March 1 and staff of A Way Home by late-February.

The new facility will provide 33 more youths at-risk to homelessness housing units to stay in, as the organization is set to move the six residents of its Safe Suites program — located at a single-family house in North Kamloops — over to the new building.

Cam MacQuarrie, who does building maintenance for A Way Home Kamloops, said there are currently about 75 youth on their waitlist.

Katherine's Place will also be home to staff, who will have overnight shifts for supervision.

At Katherine’s Place, youth will be able to access wraparound supports to develop life skills while meeting their employment and education goals, both in the housing and through connections with supports in the community.

Executive director Tangie Genshorek said the facility is a major step for the clients they serve.

“It’s a dream come true — literally. We’ve had a small house [Safe Suites] where we’ve been testing our programming and now we’re expanding that programming. We’ve got a lot of lessons that we’ve learned and we’re going to utilize all of those learnings as well as all of our community partnerships to make sure the youth here are really well supported," Genshorek said.

Katherine’s Place has been under construction since 2022 and is named for A Way Home’s founder Katherine McParland who died suddenly in 2020.

A Way Home Kamloops, meanwhile, will be maintaining its scattered sites housing program where more than 30 other youth reside. That program sees homeless youth live more independently, with visits from a support worker, eventually taking on the lease for their home.

"We'll continue to grow that with our landlords and community, and when youth are finished the two year program here [Katherine's Place], they can move into a scattered sites unit," Genshorek said.

"We're essentially doubling the amount of housing that we provide at A Way Home Kamloops."