Shannon Kilgour can’t imagine being separated from Luna.
A two-year-old golden labrador retriever, Luna has been with Shannon since she was five months old.
“I can’t live without her,” says Shannon. “That would be like me giving up my own child.”
Shannon and Luna are staying together at Hope Mission’s pet-friendly shelter at the CarePoint Wellness Center. Shannon escaped domestic violence but lost her housing, and she and Luna ended up on the street. She says an outreach team found them sleeping in a snow-covered tent and brought them to shelter.
“I didn’t know there was a place where me and Luna could go. If I had to spend the winter out there, I don’t think I would’ve survived.”
Having spaces that accommodate community members and their pets fills a critical need in the shelter system, says Tim Pasma, Hope Mission’s senior director.
“Being with their pet increases trust and reduces anxiety—for both the person and the animal.”
The idea for a pet shelter emerged from Hope Mission’s experience running the Navigation Centre, a client-centred hub for services to help people exit encampments and find housing. It included a small shelter with nine beds, which accommodated people staying with their pets.
“We realized that for many people coming to us for help, their pet is their only companion. That’s incredibly important, especially considering the amount of trauma people are dealing with.”
Hope Mission opened the CarePoint shelter in west Edmonton in October 2024. The following May, it added a 20-bed pet-friendly shelter—the only one in Edmonton—with funding from the provincial and federal governments. And so far, the shelter has been well utilized.
“We’re seeing it at close to capacity on a regular basis. We’ve had minimal—if any—incidents. It’s been safe.”
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The housing team at CarePoint continues to develop relationships with landlords who are willing to work with tenants who have pets. And Tim is looking for opportunities to apply what they’ve learned at other sites.
“Pets can be a barrier,” says Tim. “By reducing barriers to shelter access, we can help people move out of encampments, out of shelter, and ultimately into permanent housing.”
“As we develop new shelters in the future, I see different components within them—spaces for people who are heavily intoxicated, people with pets, couples, individual spaces—all designed to reduce barriers to accessing shelter and care.”
Since discovering a safe landing place at CarePoint, Shannon is looking forward to finding housing and rebuilding a stable future.
“I’m hoping to get into a long-term placement with Luna—and hopefully get working again and live a happy life.”