‘This is my opportunity to shine’

Annie Herney is an easy person to like. She has a warm, friendly smile and she is quick to throw her head back in a laugh.

On a crisp, sunny October afternoon she wears a colourful bathrobe and Santa hat as she mingles with staff and other tenants at The Village at Pine Tree Park.

This day, a Wednesday, marks a week since Annie moved in to The Village. It’s the first place she’s been able to call home in two, maybe three, years. During that time, she has been couch-surfing, staying at homeless shelters, and sometimes sleeping outside.

“Being here, it means a lot to me. It’s life-changing. I get to shower, I get to eat, I don’t have to worry about where I’m going to lie my head tonight.

It’s been tough for me, really tough … but I’m here today and I’m still grateful, I’m still happy, and I’m being me again, because over the years – those two, three years on the road – I couldn’t. Now, it’s delightful just to wake up and see the sun.”

Annie Herney

Annie describes herself as a kind person, someone who helps others and has a good heart.

She loves music and she loves to write.

With the stability and supports she has at The Village, she is planning to go back to school and, eventually, secure work she enjoys. She’s not someone who likes to sit still, so she’s aiming for a job working with her hands.

“I always said, ‘As soon as I get situated, as soon as I get something going, I’m going forward to make a better life for myself.’ It’s been difficult for everyone here. This is my opportunity to shine on my own. I can do it.

I have good friends here supporting me and the staff, Christine (Porter) and the Ally Centre staff, they’re trained and they have a good heart. They all want the best for us. There’s a lot of support.”

Annie Herney

In addition to the new friends Annie has made at The Village, she has the support of her best friend, Ronalda Denny. The women, both in their late 40s, grew up in Eskasoni First Nation. Through different circumstances, both have been struggling with homelessness for years and are now tenants at The Village.

In 2023, Ronalda lost her 21-year-old daughter, Eleanor Young, a beloved client of the Ally Centre. The community was shocked and saddened when her body was found near her tent site in Sydney.

“The grief is really hard, really hard. So, I’m tackling that and working on that.

It helps to talk to people and they’re all my friends and I’m getting to know people. We share a lot of the same things so they’re good people to talk to. And then you’ve got a home to go and shut the door and have privacy and peace of mind.”

Ronalda Denny

Ronalda wishes The Village, with its warm, safe shelter and support services, was available to her daughter, Eleanor, a year ago. Eleanor was a proud Mi’kmaw woman and loved her community of Eskasoni. Sadly, like thousands before her, Eleanor found herself among the list of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women here in Canada. Eleanor’s situation of homelessness increased her chances significantly of being another victim.

Ronalda has many friends who are still homeless and thinks about them sleeping outside in the cold.

Both Annie and Ronalda are hoping to move to Eleanor’s Court, the supportive housing development being constructed in Northend Sydney and named in honour of Ronalda’s daughter.

Eleanor’s Court is a joint project of the Ally Centre and New Dawn and will become a permanent home for many of the current tenants at The Village when it opens in February 2025, opening up new spots for people currently sleeping rough in the CBRM.

In the meantime, The Village is home for Annie and Ronalda and both are finding ways to make their individual units their own.

In the community building, which houses the shared washrooms and showers, laundry facilities, staff offices and a communal kitchen and social space, the vibe is relaxed and comfortable.

Here, each tenant will meet regularly with staff to work on an individualized plan. Together, they set goals – long-term housing, employment, physical and mental wellness – and tenants are connected with the support services they need to achieve those goals.

The community building is also a gathering place where tenants can prepare and share a meal, watch television together, and tend to the community garden in the courtyard outside.

Over the last few months as Yvonne Jessome, the manager of The Village, was picking the vibrant paint colours for the community building and selecting all the little details to make it feel like home, she was thinking about the 35 people waiting to move in, many of whom have been sleeping at the Ally Centre for months as an interim solution for people experiencing homelessness in the CBRM.

She knew The Village would have a positive impact on the lives of the tenants, but now that everyone has moved in, she has seen that positive impact exceed her expectations, even just in the first week.

“People are so much more relaxed. People are still going to have hard times but everyone has their own space and can go and close a door.

I feel like this is healing people spiritually and you might think it’s a honeymoon phase or whatever, but it feels deeper than that. It’s really unbelievable.”

Yvonne Jessome

The Village at Pine Tree Park is operated by New Dawn and the Ally Centre and funded by the provincial government as part of the Province’s rapid response the growing housing crisis across Nova Scotia. It is one of four temporary supportive housing communities currently operating across Nova Scotia. The others are located in Lower Sackville, Kentville, and Dartmouth. Two more communities are planned, one in Clayton Park and another in Dartmouth.

Each community is made up of individual shelter units made by the U.S.-based company, Pallet, and includes a communal building and wrap-around support services.

Suzanne Ley, Executive Director of Employment Support and Income Assistance with the Department of Community Services, told the Halifax Examiner that “things are actually going great” and in Lower Sackville, which has been operating since March, some tenants have moved into permanent housing, some are going back to school and some have found employment.

Last month, Minister of Community Services, Brendan Maguire, told the House of Assembly there have been no policing issues at any of the shelter villages.

For Annie, The Village at Pine Tree Park is a place where she feels calm and accepted.

“Each one of us is unique and different. We’ve all had our downfalls and everything like that, but we can rise back up.

Some people don’t realize when they are judgmental and outcast you, they don’t realize we each have a story, we all went through a lot, and I say, put yourself in my shoes for one day. What if, in the future, it is your child or your grandchildren? You don’t know what’s going to happen. You just go every day and treat people the way you want to be treated.”

Annie Herney

Listen to the interview with Annie Herney and Ronalda Denny on CBC Radio’s Information Morning Cape Breton here.

View the CBC TV News coverage by local reporter Erin Pottie here.

Read local reporter Nicole Sullivan’s Cape Breton Post article here.