Keys to Thrive: A Stepped Housing Stability and Eviction Prevention Program
$100,000
AB
Permanent Rental
Urban
101
DESCRIPTION
Keys to Thrive is a stepped, trauma informed housing stability program that supports women and their children across YWCA Calgary’s crisis shelter, transitional housing, and affordable housing programs. The program focuses on preventing eviction and strengthening long term housing success through flexible, practical interventions that meet women where they are in their housing journey. Keys to Thrive provides individualized tenancy support, financial and housing navigation coaching, conflict resolution assistance, and responsive skill building that adapts to each woman’s needs and barriers, including poverty, mental health challenges, trauma, caregiving responsibilities, and systemic discrimination. Tenant Stability Funds will support staffing, program delivery, and materials that enhance women’s capacity to secure and maintain housing. Keys to Thrive stabilizes households earlier, strengthens transitions out of homelessness, and reduces the risk of tenancy breakdown. It advances YWCA’s vision of women and their families thriving in a safe and equitable community.
DETAILS
Affordability Framework
Our affordable housing building, YWCA Taylor Family Home, abides by affordability standards designed to ensure safe, stable and financially accessible housing for women and their children who are fleeing or have fled domestic violence. Affordable housing units are set at 80% or less of average market rents, based on CMHC median market rental rates, and rents must not exceed 30% of a woman's annual income.
In our Transitional Housing program, which receives partial operational funding from the government of Alberta, rent is geared to income and is capped at a maximum of 30% of a woman's income.
Target Completion Date
N/A
Populations Served
Women in Need
Total Project Cost
$100,000
Total Units
101
Affordable Units
101
Project Funding
Funding Required
We request $100,000 per year for three years to support staffing, operational needs, and materials essential to delivering Keys to Thrive. Funds are needed at your earliest convenience to enable earlier implementation and earlier impact for women and their children.
Funds Raised
We currently have no funding committed for this project. We do receive partial operational funding from the Government of Alberta for the transitional housing program, we do not receive project specific funding. We do not receive any funding for our affordable housing building.
Use of funds
The $100,000 will be used to sustain skilled staff, provide essential program materials, and support the operational needs required to deliver Keys to Thrive. This investment will allow us to offer flexible, trauma-informed housing stability supports that prevent eviction, reduce returns to homelessness, and strengthen womens' ability to maintain safe, affordable housing. By resourcing the program's core staffing and operations, these funds will directly help women and their children build stability, safety and long-term independence.
Human Impact Story
When Maya arrived at YWCA Taylor Family Home with her two young children, she had been living in survival mode for years. After fleeing domestic violence, she struggled to find housing she could afford on a single income, and the constant instability made it difficult to focus on healing or rebuilding. At YW Taylor Family Home, she finally found a safe, below-market rental unit where her rent would never exceed what she could manage. With stable housing in place, Maya began accessing YWCA Counselling, Women's Economic Prosperity programs, and family supports. Through these services, she worked through trauma, built new financial skills, and started planning for long-term independence. Staff also connected her to community resources that helped her secure childcare, navigate benefits and strengthen her support network. Maya has been able to maintain her housing at YWCA Taylor Family Home and she describes it as the first place where she and her children have been able to breathe, feel safe, and imagine a future not defined by crisis. With stability, healing supports, and a path towards economic security, she is moving towards the safety and independence she once thought was out of reach.
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