Kevin Williams has relied on Nanaimo’s 7-10 Club for breakfast for years, so the homeless man was gutted to find it closed on Sept. 1.
“It’s kind of devastated a lot of people because they depend on it right, and there’s no place anyone can go for breakfast,” said Williams, a homeless Nanaimo resident.
Now pots that would be making porridge are being packed up, and all the tables and chairs will go into storage instead of seating the 130 hungry people they did every morning.
That’s because the building in downtown Nanaimo that used to house the 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. charity breakfast program is about to be demolished in order to make way for supportive housing.
“I think it’s sad that a food program that feeds so many in this city would shut down,” said Cherry Kingsley, a former client of the 7-10 Club.
According to Gord Fuller, chair of the 7-10 Club Society, finding a new home has been a huge struggle ever since their clients have increasingly become visibly homeless over the past five years.
“We used to see six per cent homeless. Now it’s almost 100 per cent homeless and 100 per cent with addictions with mental health and they scare people. I get that,” said Fuller.
Yet, Fuller also worries what those people will do without the routine and safe space that they have turned to.
“Some people will go hungry and that’s just wrong,” said Fuller.
The 7-10 Club will temporarily rent kitchen space at Nanaimo Foodshare to make healthy bagged lunches for distribution on the street starting on Sept. 7. Fuller said he will continue to look for a new home for the program in this already tight rental market.
“One business owner downtown flat out said to me ‘no, we’re trying to get those people out of our area,'” said Fuller.
Beginning on Sept. 9, a pancake breakfast will be offered at the Salvation Army from Monday to Friday in an effort to fill some of the gaps since the loss of the 7-10, that’s left so many people going without.
Gord Fuller, chair of the 7-10 Club Society, above, says finding a new home has been a huge struggle ever since their clients have increasingly become visibly homeless over the past five years. (CHEK News)
Skye Ryan
