From behind his new till, Jonathan Allen offers coffee and syrupy French toast to anyone who enters the caf茅.

There's no menu, and if customers don't have cash there's no obligation to pay either. Allen's real business is to keep his customers warm and safe.

鈥淭hey always need a place to feel included. They always need to escape elements. They always need to feel connected and loved. And if we can provide even a smidgen of that, that's enough for me.鈥�

On Dec. 16, Allen opened the doors to Brandi's Place, a 24-7 caf茅 that serves Nelson's vulnerable and unhoused population. The small location in downtown Nelson is accessible via a staircase on Baker Street next to Hendryx St. Forest Garden Park.

Allen works at Stepping Stones shelter for Nelson CARES and as a peer support worker with the Rural Empowered Drug Users Network. He got the idea for a winter caf茅 from a friend and decided to act on it following the death of a client.

Thirty volunteers have signed up to keep the site running day and night through the winter months to the end of a temporary lease that expires March 31. Allen is financing the caf茅 out of pocket while also working with grant writers to find more stable funding. He charges $2-2.50 for hot drinks, $5 for a meal, but will feed anyone who can't pay.

Allen hopes to continue the service past next spring, even if that requires a change of location and management.

鈥淓ither we get the funding and we turn into a non-profit society, or a peer-run social enterprise, or a non-profit comes in and moulds it and takes it over.鈥�

There are few sheltered places in Nelson that cater to unhoused people during the winter months. The city has a soup kitchen and four food banks, but the spring closure of the federally funded has meant there is nowhere out of the elements for people to simply relax and socialize.

Brandi's Place isn't a space anyone can sleep in 鈥� it is a little tight with seating for just 12 鈥� and it doesn't have any harm reduction or social services attached to it. (Allen said he's reached out to Nelson Street Outreach and a local doctor about making regular visits.)

But it's a tiny corner of the city that Allen himself might have relied on at one point in his recent history. He came to Nelson as a client of the Kootenay Boundary Adult Supported Recovery Program, and describes the caf茅 as a part of his own rehabilitation from a substance-use disorder.

鈥淚 just sunk my feet in because I know I'm not going back to that situation. Nelson is my home now, and I really want to get into the community.鈥�

The caf茅 is named for Brandi Draycott, an unhoused resident who died of a toxic drug poisoning in November. Allen previously met Draycott while working with the emergency winter bed program and was touched by what he describes as a generous spirit.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not only just for Brandi but for every other person who's died. She's just a prime example of people who have left us too soon."