CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Angela Feener is a homeless woman who has been living under a variety of roofs.
The 38-year-old Charlottetown woman turned to the Chief Mary Bernard Memorial Women’s Shelter in Lennox Island for a couple weeks, but left thinking she had a place of her own.
That potential home fell through.
She was too ashamed to return to the shelter.
Instead, Feener relied on temporary kindness to stay out of the cold.
“I surfed around on couches … I probably went to like 20 different places,’’ she says.
“It may have been for the night or just a couple of hours to rest my head or enough to shower.’’
She learned rather quickly it does not take long for a person with no home of her own to overstay a welcome at someone else’s.
She wanted to give up. She almost did.
“I figured everybody would be very better off without me,’’ she says. “I came very close last week to killing myself.’’
For the past two weeks, she has been living in her car.
She has parked the vehicle in different spots – on a dirt road, near the Charlottetown Airport, in parking lots – spending her nights cold, alone and frightened.
“I wonder if I am safe where I am sitting,’’ Feener says. “I wait for the police to knock on my window.”
They haven’t – yet.
With payments overdue, she may not even have her car to help keep her dry and (when it’s turned on) warm.
If she loses her car, she does not think she can survive.
“I will be on the street. I will have nowhere to go.’’
Her plight has been many years in the making.
In addition to battling mental health issues, Feener spent eight years feeding an opiate addiction to morphine and Percocets.
She has been clean for six months, but her personal circumstance is dire.
The mother of four hoped to change her fortune by moving to Ontario with her youngest child – a 15-year-old daughter – in tow.
She was seeking a fresh start.
She rented a room in a house for two months, but her daughter could not adapt to the change.
The pair returned to P.E.I.
Feener’s daughter moved in with the teen’s father. Feener had nowhere to live. She had no friends or family to rely on.
“My addiction really messed with my family,’’ she says. “They just don’t talk to me anymore.’’
Feener hopes to reconcile. She is gathering up the strength to make amends.
She is proud that she has managed to stave off the temptation to reach out to opiates for half a year. At times, the pull has been strong. She held morphine in her hand recently but chose not to take the potentially deadly drug.
Being homeless, though, is proving to be devastating.
She hardly eats.
She fears for her safety.
She searches for a lifeline.
Her focus, and hopeful remedy to her plight, is squarely on finding a place to live.
She is on a waiting list for low-income housing. She is waiting in her car, day and night.
Feener says she is grateful for the time she spent in the women’s shelter in Lennox Island, describing the place as open and welcoming.
She believes women would benefit from a shelter in Charlottetown.
A group called Blooming House hopes to open just such a place in January to fill a void that has existed since Grandmother House closed its doors in the capital city in 2012.
Ultimately, Feener wants a home – her own home. She does not want to be homeless.
Finding one, she says, means everything to her.
“It means a lot to me because I want my daughter to come back and live with me,’’ she says.
“I just want to stay on a straight and narrow path. I don’t want to fail. I want to prove to everybody that I can do it.’’
Need help?
Anyone facing an immediate shelter crisis can contact Housing Services at 902-368-5770 for referral to community and government services. Women experiencing family violence can also contact Anderson House at 1-800-240-9894.
Those experiencing a mental health crisis, should seek help immediately by either calling 911, going to an emergency department or by calling the Island Helpline at 1-800-218-2885.
