Photo: KTW file photo

The Loop drop-in centre operated along Tranquille Road for about five years before it was evicted by a new landlord last August.

A social advocate behind a controversial drop-in centre for the homeless that was shuttered last summer has no plans to reopen such a facility.

Glenn Hilke, who operated The Loop drop-in centre out of 405 Tranquille Rd. for years told Castanet Kamloops restarting another facility is not a project he and his fellow volunteers would take on again.

“Having a drop-in centre is such a political hot potato in this city that we won't touch that again,” Hilke said, noting the criticism The Loop received during its tenure.

The Loop, which was was operated by the Lived Experience Community Life and Peer Skills Program, served as a day space where homeless people could receive meals and store belongings.

Over the years, however, the facility was the subject of numerous nuisance complaints — including for open drug use allowed on site — and last August realtor Brendan Shaw purchased the building and evicted The Loop.

Amidst the closure the group restarted its meal train program delivering food to homeless in spots around the city, but that too was eventually ended — effective about a week ago back on Jan. 31.

Hilke said they put an end to the meal train due to volunteer burnout.

“It was a hard decision for us, [but] we had to stop, because we were emotionally, psychologically and physically exhausted from being the only [meal] service out there daily, including holidays, citywide,” Hilke said.

He said by the end, the meal train was serving on average up to 80 people a day.

He also noted that not having The Loop as a site to prepare meals added on extra hours to their food distribution time.

He said they had about 10 to 12 regular volunteers helping to keep the meal train going after The Loop closed.

Hilke said he’s not sure yet what he may do next in trying to help the homeless, but feels there is a lack of advocacy at the moment for the homeless in Kamloops.