The Strathcona Standard

The City of Campbell River is extending a temporary program to make sure the homeless population downtown doesn’t go hungry.

The city’s “Reimagine the Row” project at the corner of 13th Avenue and Shoppers Row is well underway, with the properties planned for new commercial and residential buildings cleared and site preparations nearly complete. A building permit will be issued in May, allowing for construction to begin.

However, the community kitchen which operated on the site, providing healthy, hot meals to people in need, has not been able to find a replacement location. Kwesa Place, a support centre which operated beside the kitchen, has been using a van to deliver meals and services to people on the streets downtown, but they haven’t been able to find a new home, either.

Part of the “Reimagine” project included temporary funding from the city for six months to provide daily takeaway dinners, in conjunction with daily hot lunches provided by the Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope. The city is extending the meal program until the end of April, after council last week approved spending up to $24,000 from the Financial Stabilization Reserve to keep it going.

“The city recognizes the closure of Harbourside Inn required the social services previously operating out of the building to be relocated and acknowledges that to date the groups have been unsuccessful in securing a new location,” says a statement from the city.

The city says it will “continue to explore opportunities to best support vulnerable members of our community, including food security, supportive housing, and targeted outreach” but points out the delivery of those programs fall outside of the city’s formal responsibilities.

The city says it continues to seek support from other levels of government to secure the resources the community needs.