It has been one loss after another as the Downtown Eastside saw the closure of London Drugs and now Nester’s Market, due to a fire last week.

Both were in the Woodward’s building complex, and Nester’s Market is the only remaining grocery store in the area.

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Due to arson, Nester’s is temporarily closed with no timeline on when it would be reopening.

Landon Hoyt, part of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association (BIA), says the closure is an inconvenience to the residents of the Downtown Eastside.

“Any disruption to the service that they provide — grocery, anything like that — has real impacts on people’s daily lives. Our immediate concern is with the safety of staff and the customers,” says Hoyt.

Hoyt has been in contact with the manager of Nester’s Market and says that it is “committed to reopening as soon as possible.”

As the last one-stop shopping store for the area, it is considered important to the residents of the Downtown Eastside.

There are other stores that are located further away, such as T&T Supermarket and Sunrise Market, but they are more specialty stores and not one stop shop stores.

Hoyt says that the area has a long history of people stealing to survive, as many unhoused in the area deal with poverty.

“These people are also experiencing poverty and living in dire crises. We’ve got to ensure that is recognized,” says Hoyt.

He stresses that these issues are compounded by vulnerable populations being preyed upon by dealers and gang members.

“We need to ensure that people have the resources and the stability that they need in their life, so they are not forced to go towards survival mechanisms of crime and danger.”

This is not a policing issue to Hoyt, though; it is a mental health issue with the need for addiction supports in the neighbourhood.

“We need those supports for people going through these crises in their lives right now. We know that someone that might be going into a space to steal or take products from the shelves are likely being preyed upon,” says Hoyt.

One man is facing an arson charge in connection to the fire.

With files from Raynaldo Suarez