Education, Advocacy, and Support: How Community Bridge Prevents Evictions

Too many Edmontonians face a difficult decision every month — pay bills or pay rent.

This was the reality for Katherine (name changed to protect privacy) — and she almost lost her home. As a single mother of two with a part-time job and extra monthly support coming from Alberta Income Support, she was still falling behind and facing an imminent eviction.

After working with her employer to change her job to full-time, she lost her Alberta Income Support benefits and found herself still needing extra help to ensure she and her two sons wouldn’t be evicted from their home. With the eviction notice in-hand, she connected with our Community Bridge program for help.

The main goal of Community Bridge is to prevent evictions and ensure people at risk don’t experience homelessness. Through financial education, benefits navigation, and direct financial assistance, this program seeks to not only prevent immediate evictions, but also help ensure individuals don’t have to face these challenges again.

“Katherine came to us already taking the initiative to change her part-time work to a full-time job,” says Katrina John-West, Manager of Homelessness Prevention and Housing Support with Bissell Centre, where she oversees the Community Bridge program. “Her Alberta Income Support had ended and having a full-time job still wasn’t enough to help her catch up.”

How Community Bridge Helped Katherine

To ensure Katherine could break from this cycle, the Community Bridge team helped her in three areas to pay off her remaining debt and guarantee her housing stability. The first step was making sure Katherine could receive emergency income benefits from Alberta Income Support.

“What some folks don’t know about Community Bridge is we can act as advocates for people,” explains Katrina. “We can also make references to other sources of financial assistance that folks might not know exist.” In addition to advocating for Katherine’s Alberta Income Support emergency benefits, the Community Bridge team connected her with benefits from the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Financial benefits helped, but didn’t cover all her debts — which were collecting interest.

The second approach to helping Katherine came in a one-time, interest-free loan from the Community Bridge program. This lump sum assistance is, on average, paid back within one year of receiving it — even without any timelines or pressure from Community Bridge. “How quickly and frequently folks can pay back this assistance shows us how much we’re helping their financial situations,” says John-West. “It’s setting people up for the best successes possible so they can become empowered with their finances.”

The third type of support Katherine received was a referral to Civida, Edmonton’s largest affordable housing provider. This referral was for additional rent assistance benefits, but many qualifying folks also find new and more affordable homes with Civida — further breaking the cycles faced by countless Edmontonians.

Avoiding Eviction, Controlling Finances, and Finding Stability

Today, Katherine remains in her home with her two sons, now both teenagers and preparing for adulthood. She’s regained control of her finances, cleared out all her debts and arrears, and continues to work full-time while maintaining her household.

“Katherine is a really special success story,” says Katrina. “Many times, we’re meeting people who are in the middle of being evicted or aren’t able to work. Katherine was doing everything right and the odds were still stacked against her. Everything she needed was within reach — she just wasn’t sure where to look. I’m so proud that the team could point her in the best direction for her and her family.”

Thanks to support from ENMAX, the Community Bridge team can continue connecting with folks at risk and prevent them from being evicted and facing homelessness. “We believe in empowering our communities and helping more people access the essentials for a healthy, thriving life,” says Krista Moroz, Manager, Community Partnerships & External Relations at ENMAX. “By supporting Bissell’s Community Bridge Program, we’re not just helping individuals and families in crisis — we’re also investing in the long-term strength of our community and a brighter future for all Edmontonians.”

From January to October 2024, we helped 464 individuals, just like Katherine, facing immediate evictions from their homes. Best of all, 96% of the people we help through Community Bridge stay in their homes. We can’t thank organizations like ENMAX enough for their support — without our generous funders, we wouldn’t be able to offer the crucial help that’s needed throughout our city.

Helping People Start Over

– Story by Bissell Centre Drop-in Staff Member

A gentleman came into the drop-in about 8 weeks ago. He approached me and asked about several of our programs. Further discussion revealed he is a recovering alcoholic that had relapsed for the last four months and lost his home and job.

We met daily for  three  weeks when he decided to detox and head to AA to resume work with his sponsor. I encouraged him in this and provided bus tickets. Two more weeks passed and he regained his sobriety. He remained sober despite many stressors and I encouraged him daily with affirmations and active listening.   Last week he told me he wanted to go try out for a job. I encouraged him and offered tickets to get him to the appointment.

He has good skills and believed this would assist him to get back into an apartment and off the street. He seemed to me to be a very motivated individual so I believed him about the interview. We role played and I tried to be as supportive as possible. Friday last week he came into the drop-in beaming. He was offered a job! It was very apparent how happy he was when he showed me his letter of offer for a very well paid position.   I coached him around self confidence and gave some referrals for assistance with addictions when working.

He thanked me and asked about housing. I referred him to our Adult Support progam  and instructed him as to what he needed to do to  get funds for the first month’s rent and some start up funds for returning to work.   Today I saw him and he showed me the copy of his lease. He moves in the 25^th of January and starts his new job the 23^rd. I am very happy for him. He told me he could not have done it without me. I told him I could not have done “it” were HE not so motivated and skilled and in the end it was he not me that “done it”.   He promised to send a postcard to the Bissell from his first international posting. BRAVO!!!