'This place has honestly saved me': Fredericton tiny-home community opens café serving fresh brews, fresh starts
For Ashley Chapman, Neighbourly Coffee is about more than a fresh brew – it’s her fresh start.
The Fredericton woman moved to 12 Neighbours – a tiny home community on the city’s northside built to support those without housing – two months ago
Under founder Marcel Lebrun, the community has now built and opened a café close to the tiny homes, and is employing several people who live there, including Chapman.
“I was at a homeless shelter for women after an abusive relationship and this place has honestly saved me,” she said. “I was able to study and have my own space and get my own self back again.”
She’s says a lot of hard work goes into brewing each cup of coffee and baking each loaf of bread, which is why she’s encouraging everyone in Fredericton to visit the new café.
“Everybody's trying to live a new life, and people do need to give people a chance,” she said.
Ashley Chapman is pictured. (Laura Brown/CTV Atlantic)
Melissa Heagney was the first resident at 12 Neighbours. She moved in during a snowstorm from a tent she and her partner had been living in.
Now, she’s working at the café fulltime, able to bring her love for cooking to her neighbours.
“We proved them all wrong. This is a big community and it's just going to keep growing,” she said. “I feel more confident in myself, I can actually do stuff now. I went to school, never thought I could do that. I just graduated in April, now I have a job. In 15 years I’ve never had a job.”
Melissa Heagney is pictured. (Laura Brown/CTV Atlantic)
That’s what it’s all about, says Lebrun.
“To see her go from survival crisis mode every day to, you know, making some healthy choices and then being able to show up to training every day and get a food services training program, is incredible,” he said.
The community now has 97 tiny homes, and offers developmental supports like counselling and education opportunities for its residents.
It also encourages “low barrier, patient and progressive employment opportunities” to help people enter, or re-enter, the workforce, which is why Neighbourly Coffee was created.
“Everyone can now touch the project. There's been so many people who've kind of followed what we're doing and are excited. And then this weekend, with the cafe open, they're able to come here, meet community members greeting them at the door, come in and be a little bit closer to what this is all about,” Lebrun said.
The community is also turning its focus to another social enterprise: building garden homes for purchase.
The homes are becoming more popular in cities to address the housing shortage. Bylaws now allow many homeowners to place a garden home on their property and rent them out.
“Neighbourly Homes” has started building those homes, fully equipped with appliances that can connect to existing water, sewer and electrical infrastructure.
Lebrun says it’s all about giving purpose.
“Community is really the healing agent, not the clinician or, you know, the programs or these kinds of things. So really, fundamentally, we're community builders,” he said. “Yes, we have houses. And you got to start with a place to live, having a warm, safe place. But more than that, we're building a place where people can be included, valued, cherished and where barriers are challenged, where opportunities become accessible.”
For more New Brunswick news visit our dedicated provincial page.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trump's Madison Square Garden event features crude and racist insults
Donald Trump took the stage Sunday night at New York’s Madison Square Garden to deliver his campaign's closing argument with the election nine days away after several of his allies used crude and racist insults toward U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris and other critics of the former president.
B.C. election results: Mail-in ballots heavily favour NDP, only absentee ballots left to count
The majority of mail-in ballots tallied this weekend for the final count in B.C.’s nail-bitingly close 2024 provincial election went to the NDP, increasing the party’s chances of clinching a third term.
Here's when you need to change your clock back
Millions of Canadians will notice their clocks turn back by one hour on Nov. 3, marking the end of daylight saving time this year.
New polls show Sask. NDP leading over Sask. Party ahead of election day
A pair of new pre-election polls indicate that the Saskatchewan NDP has a slight lead ahead of election day.
17-year-old charged for driving 188 km/h on Hwy. 417 in Ottawa
A 17-year-old Ottawa driver was caught speeding nearly 90 km/h over the speed limit on Highway 417.
Hollywood star Victor Garber gets emotional after surprise meeting with his former teacher in London, Ont.
Victor Garber got teary-eyed when he walked into a brunch in his honour Sunday in London, Ont.
Another bumpy week ahead as Trudeau faces deadlines from Liberal MPs, Bloc
Another week, another raft of imminent challenges to Justin Trudeau's leadership of both the country and the Liberal Party.
He lost a finger and survived a kidnapping. Then, this climber took on a 9,000-foot 'death-trap'
With jaw-dropping big wall ascents and a life packed with adrenaline and adventure, climber Tommy Caldwell has had a career worthy of – and captured by – a feature film.
How to make sure your used clothes go to the right place – and not to organized crime
Giving away used clothes for a second life feels like an act of charity – and it often is. But it’s become more complicated. A W5 investigation has discovered allegations that organized crime players are muscling in on charities to access their donation bins.