A North Kamloops-based initiative to clean up city streets successfully moved into the downtown core is now putting the shine on East Kamloops neighbourhoods.

The Clean Team has been picking up needles, wiping clean graffiti, and removing human waste and other garbage from Valleyview to Campbell Creek since July. The team, an initiative of the North Shore Business Improvement Association, launched in 2022 and expanded into the downtown a year later.

So far the team’s efforts have largely focused on the Valleyview frontage road and any additional areas of concern voiced by businesses, said Clare Warner, executive director of the East Kamloops Business Improvement Association.

“We’re looking for businesses to reach out to us if they need that [service],” she said. “And we’re beginning to undertake an awareness campaign so that businesses know this is a service that’s available.”

Keeping East Kamloops neighbourhoods clean was one of the reasons the city’s newest BIA came to be, said Warner. Graffiti, garbage and other disturbances related to the homeless and disenfranchised are a worry all over town. When the BIA was formed, a survey of local businesses revealed cleanliness and community safety are the top priorities.

“I think working with the Clean Team will help us identify the data and start to track trends for what kind of drug paraphernalia is being used, what are the hot spots where they’re using, the amount of garbage we’re finding,” said Warner.

The Clean Team, which operates with support from the City, WorkBC, Open Door Group, and other social agencies, was created to help resolve homelessness and social disruption in Kamloops, said Jeremy Heighton, executive director of the NSBIA.

The team is staffed by social-agency clients who spend a year of paid employment cleaning up city streets. By the end of that year the goal is for them to enter the next stage of work rehabilitation or find other employment, he said.

“There’s an underlying social contract that we’re going to help you as much as we possibly can to help you recover and get to the next stage of your journey,” said Heighton.

Heighton was part of the EKBIA steering committee and heard business owners’ anxieties about keeping East Kamloops clean. It wasn’t long before the Clean Team became a part of that discussion, he said.

One downtown businessman who’s seen the team in action is Dave Fuoco, owner of McAllister and Howard. He had a problem with human waste outside his business and the Clean Team took care of it.

Fuoco said problems like the ones he’s encountered worsened after COVID, with an element emerging that doesn’t respect property or the city itself. To have a Clean Team that’s willing to take care of that is incredibly helpful.

“It’s huge. When you’ve been a part of the downtown for so long you want to see it look as beautiful as it can. You take it personally when you see it diminished that way,” he said.

Downtown Business Improvement Association executive director Howie Reimer said the team has been doing a great job. He appreciates their efforts, especially when removing tagging, which has been prolific in the alleys.

In 2024 the Clean Team picked up 30,000 pounds of trash, removed 1,700 graffiti tags and more than 55,000 pieces of drug paraphernalia, said Heighton.