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After fleeing to Ottawa from Congo last winter, Fanny Mbuyavanga was still left searching for a safe place to rest her head at night.
"I didn't know where to go, where to start," the 23-year-old recalled.
Mbuyavanga arrived in December and initially stayed with friends before ending up at Heron Road Community Centre in July — one of the emergency overflow spaces set up to help manage the crisis facing Ottawa's shelter system.
"I don't like this situation. I don't know what to do. I'm here, I will overcome this. I hope God will help me and I'll move past this," the 23-year-old told CBC in French.
The centre on Heron Road currently shelters more than 200 refugees and asylum seekers, with men and women staying on separate floors. Mbuyavanga said she had to sleep in a large open room lined with bunk beds, with little peace or privacy.
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