{"id":9144,"date":"2025-09-04T16:33:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9144"},"modified":"2025-09-04T16:35:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:35:53","slug":"janes-place-working-to-secure-safe-housing-for-queens-county-survivors-of-intimate-partner-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/09\/04\/janes-place-working-to-secure-safe-housing-for-queens-county-survivors-of-intimate-partner-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane’s Place working to secure safe housing for Queens County survivors of intimate partner violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Deborah Herman-Spartinelli is the chair of Jane’s Place Society, a group working to bring second-stage housing to Queens County for survivors of domestic abuse. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

A new group is in the early stages of trying to create safe and secure housing for Queens County residents fleeing domestic violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jane\u2019s Place Society wants to provide second stage housing for women and families who are leaving shelters, but still need supportive places to live.<\/span><\/p>\n

Group chair Deborah Herman-Spartinelli says Queens County needs more supports for victims of intimate partner violence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan is to buy a property and develop it into second-stage housing, which means making apartments. When you leave a transition house you go into this second-stage housing for a limited time. It gives women and their families a step in the right direction to get their finances in order and get back into the regular (housing) market eventually.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She says a small group of Queens County residents got together about two years ago to talk about forming the society. They\u2019ve recently been meeting with officials from all levels of government, including Queens MLA Kim Masland and South Shore-St. Margarets MP Jessica Fancy-Landry. They\u2019ve also met with representatives from Harbour House, a transition house in Bridgewater that provides services in Queens County.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is new. Even though the idea was brought together two years ago it didn\u2019t really get any feet under it till this spring,” Herman-Spartinelli says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think Queens County is underserved and we felt like we needed to do something. And we have the seed money from some donors and we felt like this was the best way to (do it). After talking to Harbour House and various levels of government and so on. We\u2019re still meeting with different levels of government again to go over this second-stage housing and how to go about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nova Scotia government declared intimate partner violence an epidemic last September and increased funding to transition houses across the province.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Transition House Association of Nova Scotia says its member organizations supported about 4,500 women and children in abusive situations in 2024. It says the problem is only getting worse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelly Ann Hamshaw, the executive director of the South Shore Transition House Association which operates Harbour House, says there\u2019s a critical need for second-stage housing on the South Shore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe desperately need access to second-stage housing,” she told QCCR earlier this year. “For women to be able to access our shelter environment, they need to be able to transition to safe and secure housing. So there\u2019s a critical shortage of that across the entire province.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Herman-Spartinelli, who has a background in construction, says the group will have up to nine members on its board. And it will be looking for volunteers to help in other ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

She says they\u2019re also planning public consultation sessions around Queens County, likely to begin in the next month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get enough people on the board from all parts of Queens County, trying to get their opinion and their thoughts because it\u2019s a big community. It can\u2019t just be focused on Liverpool. It might have the secondary housing in Liverpool, but it is for the whole community, and it could even house people from other communities too if there was room.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jane\u2019s Place is named after Jane Hurshman, the Queens County woman convicted of killing her abusive ex-husband in 1982.<\/span><\/p>\n

Herman-Spartinelli was a friend of Hurshman\u2019s. She says the problem of intimate partner violence is just as prevalent more than 40 years later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She says the group\u2019s members know there\u2019s a lot of work ahead of them. But they\u2019re committed to creating safe and secure second-stage housing for women and their families in Queens County.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to work very hard and we have positive support from the people we\u2019ve met so far, so I think it\u2019s not going to be quick because nothing ever is. So it\u2019s not going to happen tomorrow, but it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in volunteering with Jane\u2019s Place Society, you can email Deborah Herman-Spartinelli at dahsnseb@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/freq_janesplacestorysept425.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n



<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new group is in the early stages of trying to create safe and secure housing for Queens County residents fleeing domestic violence. Jane\u2019s Place Society wants to provide second stage housing for women and families who are leaving shelters, but still need supportive places to live. Group chair Deborah Herman-Spartinelli says Queens County needs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2820,1119,2175,2174,384,2177,3395,3396,2819,49,3398,3397,2176],"class_list":["post-9144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-abuse","tag-deborah-herman-spartinelli","tag-domestic-violence","tag-harbour-house","tag-housing","tag-intimate-partner-violence","tag-janes-place","tag-janes-place-society","tag-kelly-ann-hamshaw","tag-queens-county","tag-second-stage-housing","tag-shelter","tag-transition-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9149,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9144\/revisions\/9149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}