Willinda Boline sits at her dining room table, watches her oldest son make waffles in the toaster, and remembers how close she came to losing her children.
Willinda, a mother of six, was struggling to find stable housing for her family. After spending a night in their vehicle, she contacted a friend who took them in temporarily. Desperate for a breakthrough, she called Child and Family Services.
“They told me that if I couldn’t provide for my kids, they would apprehend them. I was scared to ask for help.”
Willinda kept searching.
“I had resources, but it felt like I was just running around in circles. A lot of landlords don’t want to rent to a family with lots of kids.”
Willinda eventually found emergency accommodation through Alberta Works, which placed her family in a hotel and referred them to Hope Mission for housing support.
Her family is one of 53 housed through Hope Mission’s family housing program in 2025, its first year as a provincially funded program.
The program partners with Alberta Works, which refers families staying in hotels to Hope Mission’s housing team. Staff connect with families to assess their needs before helping with housing searches, appointments, and documentation.
“It started as an unfunded pilot,” says Ade Adeoye, director of emergency care and housing. “We agreed to try it for a short period, and families were being housed. Outcomes were improving. It became clear the need was real.”
Even before the pilot, Hope Mission quickly developed a response in 2023 when newcomer families began arriving at Hope Mission directly from the airport—with children.
“We’d try to connect them to family shelters, but often those options weren’t available,” recalls Ade. “At that point, housing families wasn’t something we were set up or funded to do. But the need was right at our door, and we responded.”
The housing team began moving families into transitional housing suites, providing meals, laundry facilities, and access to kitchens, while helping parents navigate housing searches and paperwork.
Around the same time, Hope Mission developed a service hub where community members could access housing support, identification services, and Alberta Works income supports. Eventually, Alberta Works asked Hope Mission to find housing for families staying in hotels —sometimes for a year or more.
In January 2025, the Alberta Works partnership was formalized.
Through partnerships with Homeward Trust and other programs, housing workers help families secure furnishings, household items, and grocery cards—basic essentials needed to settle into a home.
“We don’t want families moving into empty units and having to figure everything out on their own,” says Ade. “Those early supports help families stay housed.”
Ade says the program allows Hope Mission to work with families in a preventative way.
“We’re able to support parents and children before homelessness becomes more entrenched.”
Willinda and her six children moved into a four-bedroom townhome in December. While she’s still settling into a new neighbourhood, enrolling her kids in school, and updating her address, she’s already looking ahead.
“Once my kids are back in school and my little ones are older, I want to go back to school myself,” she says. “For now, the kids are happy, I’m happy, and we can be there for each other.”