Ally Centre, New Dawn team up to put dent in C.B. housing crisis
Two community groups with impressive legacies have joined forces to help the most vulnerable among the unhoused in and around Sydney, Cape Breton.
New Dawn Enterprises, the oldest community development corporation in Canada, and The Ally Centre of Cape Breton — formerly the Cape Breton AIDS Coalition —have a combined 81 years of experience working in and around the island with its at-risk and vulnerable populations.
Together, these organizations are attempting to tackle Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s (CBRM) housing crisis. Just like on the mainland, the number of homeless people has skyrocketed by 125 per cent since 2018.
“COVID just changed everything,” says Christine Porter, executive director of the Ally Centre. “Cape Breton came out of it still in an opioid crisis, and now in a housing crisis.”
In the beginning
To try to manage some of the demand, the Ally Centre purchased a building in downtown Sydney and began to operate an emergency shelter, often for those who cannot go to a homeless shelter.
“We approach everything from a trauma-informed lens,” says Porter.
“We are helping people, through the day, to stay alive. It’s just treating people with kindness, compassion and dignity. This is the population that is the most neglected.”
New Dawn has been involved in its community for decades, running a Meals on Wheels program and a community arts centre, all the while serving as an affordable-housing landlord. “It’s been a while since we built something from scratch,” admits Chloe Donatelli, the supportive housing project manager.
She’s excited about their new joint venture, Eleanor’s Court — a 25-unit high-support housing community nearing completion in downtown Sydney with a target opening date of late April.. New Dawn is the builder of the facility and the Ally Centre will be in charge of the day-to-day operations.
“We have a great relationship with our contractor and architect, who are very interested in community-based projects and are thrilled to be entering our first big partnership with the Ally Centre.”
This new partnership has already borne fruit, even before there is any ribbon-cutting at Eleanor’s Court —they’ve rolled out temporary solutions to the housing crisis even as they work on more permanent ones.
Past experience
New Dawn and The Ally Centre have succeeded in erecting Pine Tree Pallet Park Village — opened in August 2024, it is a 35-unit community of temporary “pallet houses,” though Porter calls that name misleading. “They’re not made from pallets,” she says. “They are lovely tiny homes with enough room for a bed and space to call your own.”
Each of the units has a lockable door and access to a communal building that houses restrooms and laundry facilities.
“This all really should have been up months earlier,” remarks Porter, “but some members of the community objected to the original location.”
A stepping stone
The Village is intended to “help residents to stabilize until they are ready to move into more permanent housing,” says Donatelli. That housing is likely to be at Eleanor’s Court.
“Any service you can think of will be on site” at Eleanor’s Court, says Porter. There will be a medical clinic, mental health and addiction professionals, nurses and occupational therapists. Each unit is self-contained with a kitchen and bathroom, but outside their apartments, there will be space for residents to interact, including community rooms and a community garden.”
Rent will be income-based and vary for each resident; it will represent 30 per cent of a resident’s gross income. The hope is that Eleanor’s Court will become a stopover for residents between Pine Tree Pallet Village and lower-support housing.
Unfortunately, the need is too great in the CBRM to house all folks who need shelter in these developments, so the priority for Eleanor’s Court tenants will be given to individuals with a higher “acuity” score — that is, more vulnerable individuals as assessed by the Homelessness Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS) used by the province. These are the community members who need the most stabilization and care, and who would benefit the most from the harm-reduction and trauma-informed model of support that will be available at Eleanor’s Court.
New Dawn owns the land where The Village is currently located and hopes to develop it further upon completion of Eleanor’s Court. “We would love the ability to build some long-term, lower-to-medium acuity housing there,” says Donatelli. “It would be a very natural place to help someone transition out of Eleanor’s Court.”
New Dawn also recognizes that there is still a huge need around Cape Breton and the island is not adequately served by many non-profits that can help. They are investigating possibilities in Port Hawkesbury and the feasibility of a similar partnership there.
Who is Eleanor?
Eleanor was a 21-year-old Eskasoni First Nation woman, described by Donatelli as a “vibrant force, always spreading love and positivity.” She was an unhoused person and very much a part of life at the Ally Centre in Sydney, Cape Breton. In the fall of 2023, she was found dead next to her tent while living rough. This was devastating to the Ally Centre and its tight-knit community. After forging a partnership with New Dawn on the rapid housing initiative, the Ally Centre community, which was working on a name for the new building at the time of Eleanor’s passing, instinctively knew the building should be named in her memory; New Dawn was honoured to provide the space for Eleanor’s legacy to live on. A local Mi’kmaw artist, Loretta Gould, will be painting a mural on the outside of the completed facility, inspired by the memory of Eleanor and the human right to housing.
For more information on this rapid housing initiative, check out the project website at www.newdawnproperties.ca/developments/eleanors-court
