'Having a place to live is freedom': Families move into YW's newest affordable housing building

Ikram Mahmoud says she will always be thankful to the staff at YW Kitchener-Waterloo for providing her and her two-year-old son with a place to live. She says since moving to her affordable unit in April, it's brought her peace of mind and freedom.

"Now I can think about myself ... how I can take care of my son, how I can get a job, how I can get an education and get out of the house when ever I want," she told CBC News.

"Having a place to live is freedom."

Mahmoud is among the 10 women and their children who call the newest addition on Block Line Road home.

It's the second building to go up on the property in the last year, specifically to help homeless or vulnerably housed women and their families. Building One, across the parking lot, houses single women experiencing homelessness.

Mahmoud came to be in the care of the YW in February after she lost her job and could no longer afford her rent at the place she was living with roommates.

She remembers feeling worried for her son and unsure of what she was going to do next.

"I didn't have money to rent a house and also didn't know where to go," she said. "That's when I called the YW and they welcomed me."

'I couldn't handle how happy I was'

Mahmoud and her son were placed in motel in Waterloo for several months before moving to Block Line Road. When she saw her unit for the first time, Mahmoud said she felt overwhelmingly happy.

"I was shocked. I didn't know what to feel and I was so excited and happy," she said. "Right away I came outside because I couldn't handle how happy I was."

She says her two bedroom unit is spacious and the location is pretty great too. The building is close to the bus stop, the Kitchener Public Library and a park.

Now that she's housed, Mahmoud said she is working on finding employment and has plans to go to college and give back to her community. 

"Before I wasn't thinking about going to college, [YW] inspired me to go to college," she said, adding she wants to make sure someone else feels the same way she felt when she received her unit. 

Number of women in need on the rise

The number of women experiencing homelessness and in need of support has almost doubled since Abla Tsolu, director of housing and homelessness, says she joined the YW KW team four years ago.

In 2019, the number of single women on a wait list for housing was at 250. That number has now grown to over 400. She said the YW KW is also one of the only organizations that supports vulnerably housed families in the region. 

Pre-pandemic, many of those families were living at YW's emergency shelter, but due to safety concerns, the organization decided to move them into motels. 

"We've been trying to find a permanent space for them since then and we haven't been able to find them space up until now," she told CBC News.

There had been safety concerns from the families staying at the motels and with a growing need for housing, Tsulo said the organization felt a sense of urgency to build something for the women and children they support. 

Using mass timber as one of the main building materials, YW was able to build both buildings on Block Line Road relatively fast and in a sustainable way, she said.

"We were having a lot of gang activities in the motel. We were talking to the region and different partners to get families out of those spaces and we weren't able to find an ideal space for families to move to," she said.

"Because of such need for housing we wanted to put up something quickly so that families could move from those unsafe spaces."

Now that construction is complete, Tsolu said there is now an opportunity for the women and their children to feel safe and build community.

"They are part of a safe community now," she said.