Olivia never lived at Nellie’s shelter. She never spent a night in one of our beds, cooked dinner in our kitchen or found a few hours to herself while her daughter joined the Children’s Program. But Olivia is no stranger to Nellie’s.

Almost six years ago, Olivia and her then 12-year-old daughter, Grace, found themselves facing eviction. Despite working as many hours as her part-time job would give her, she still found herself unable to pay their rent. With help from our Transitional Housing Program, an application for appeal was successfully filed, allowing Olivia and Grace to stay in their home. But stability didn’t last and a few years later, Olivia, now pregnant, and Grace found themselves without a home. With no other family to turn to, they settled at a nearby family shelter.

“I felt like I hit rock bottom,” says Olivia. “After I lost my house, I was on my own and I didn’t know what to do and who to turn to for help until I met Diana (Galeano) at Nellie’s (Transitional Housing Support Program).”

Nellie’s Transitional Housing Program helps homeless women find a place to live and offers eviction support to help women stay in their homes. This support can take many forms, including providing guidance on accessing emergency funding to pay rent, advocating on their behalf on landlord-tenant issues, accompanying them to housing tribunal hearings or offering referrals to legal clinics.

For Olivia and Grace, the first, and most important, step was to find them a new home.

“When a woman shows up, our goal is to find them housing either in the primary market or the subsidized market,” says Diana, a Transitional Support Worker at Nellie’s. “Every single client we work with is different. We work with each one of them, as individuals with unique needs. My goal for my clients is to search for the services and programs around them and guide them to success. Everyone’s goal is different and I help them achieve their goals.”

Six months after Olivia and Grace arrived at the family shelter, with Diana’s help they moved into their own subsidized housing unit. But support didn’t end there. When her second daughter, Danielle, was born, Diana also helped Olivia fight for child support payments for both girls. She has also fought for Olivia when her rent was raised above her means and has helped her create a wish list for the Gifts-in-Kind Holiday Program, a partnership where employees at a number of companies sponsor individual families and purchase wish list items for them.

“I’ve been fighting for myself and to support myself for so many years,” says Olivia, as Danielle, now 3, plays with a new colouring toy from a generous Nellie’s donor. Olivia explains that she arrived in Canada from Guyana as a child with her mother and older brother. But her mother passed away when she was in middle school and her brother was left to care for her, leaving her to mostly care for herself.

“Until now, everybody in my life just passed through for a few weeks or months and then it would all collapse again. But Diana and Nellie’s have been there for me for such a long time and no matter how hard it is for me, Nellie’s always shows me the way. Nellie’s is always showing me that when the first option doesn’t work out, there’s a second and third and fourth option to try,” she says.

“Now I have a ground to stand on and a solid foundation. And I am so grateful. Nellie’s has done so much for my family and I just can’t say thank you enough.”