A few months ago, I arrived at Nellie’s to find a woman sitting in our program space with a beautiful 6-month-old baby boy on her lap. I couldn’t help but go over, say hello and coo at the smiling child.

While I gushed over the little tyke, she told me that she was waiting to meet with Diana, one of our Transitional Housing Workers. They had last met a little over a year ago, when she was just a few months pregnant, and now she found herself in a position, once again in need of Diana’s help.

Our Transitional Housing Program helps homeless women find a place to live and offers eviction support to help women stay in their homes. The support we offer 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.

In this woman’s case, she had lost her home in a fire—a fire she believes could have been avoided if her landlord had followed through on upkeep and maintenance complaints. Regardless, she was now homeless and living in a hotel (thanks to help from the fire department and the Canadian Red Cross) with her six children, ranging in age from six months to 10 years. She worried that she and her children would have to move into a shelter when their time at the hotel ended. Which is exactly what brought her to be sitting in that spot in our program space, waiting to meet with Diana.

As I gathered a few basic necessities for her to take with her when she left—shampoo, snacks, and toys for the kids—her story reminded me that just because many of our lives have come to a standstill in this pandemic, they have not stopped. Every day may sometimes feel the same, but every day can also bring unexpected challenges. A fire, for example, can rip through our home at any time in our life, taking with it our stability and security.

At Nellie’s, our job doesn’t end when a woman leaves our shelter and finds housing. We remain a vital part of her support network whenever she needs us. She may be fighting to keep her housing, or needing help finding new housing, accessing our weekly food program in order to put healthy meals on the table, or attending one of our many community programs to gain important everyday life skills. Nellie’s will always be here for her.

To every one of our donors, funders, community supporters and volunteers, I can only say thank you for making this possible. Government funding ensures a roof over our heads, beds to sleep in and other essentials, but we are so much more than a bed. It’s because of your generosity that, throughout this global pandemic, we have not only been able to continue welcoming women and their children impacted by abuse, trauma and homelessness but have also been able to continue to be there for the women and their children who still need us, like this woman and her six children, as they build the next chapter of their lives.