Image credit: Trellis Society
Since 1976, Trellis Society has walked alongside children, youth and families in Calgary’s Bowness neighbourhood. Through school-based programs, youth family services, and its Bowness Hub, the organization has built trusted relationships with generations of residents, helping people navigate challenges and lead stable, connected lives.
But as housing pressures intensified across Calgary, more families who had long called Bowness home began struggling to stay. Trellis saw that housing had become one of the greatest barriers to long-term stability and expanded its work to include something increasingly difficult to find: deeply affordable homes.
That vision became A New Home for Families, a 50-unit affordable housing development featured on Partners for Affordable Housing’s Front Door platform. Located in the heart of Bowness, it will provide stable homes for families and young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Trellis has already identified 27 families connected to the Bowness Hub who are experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness.
A community Trellis has called home for decades
Long before Trellis Society envisioned developing affordable housing, its teams were working alongside children, youth and families through the Bowness Hub. As local needs evolved, so did the organization’s understanding of what was preventing many people from achieving lasting housing stability.
“We have been operating in youth and family homelessness for decades,” said Jeff Dyer, Chief Executive Officer of Trellis Society. “We have always been on the front door of trying to find landlords that are reasonable and welcoming to the folks that we serve.”
Over the years, and through Calgary’s tightening rental market, that became increasingly difficult.
Families who had previously been able to remain housed found themselves facing eviction, rising rents and fewer affordable housing options. Many returned to Trellis seeking help, not because they lacked resilience or strong support networks, but because affordable housing had become increasingly out of reach.
Trellis had owned and operated a small number of housing units for many years, but the growing need made it clear that a larger response was required. Its first major housing development needed to be close to schools, employment, transit and the services families already relied on.
Located within walking distance of schools, transit and the Trellis Bowness Hub, A New Home for Families will allow families to continue accessing the supports, relationships and daily routines that already shape their lives. For Dyer, the project is not simply about creating more affordable housing. It is about ensuring that the people who have helped shape Bowness can continue shaping its future.
“Bowness is a community in transition,” he said. “There is good redevelopment happening in the neighbourhood. We keep growing forward, we love the neighbourhood but let us not forget about folks who have lived there for many years and tried to raise their families.”
A home connected to community
“I view this project almost like concentric circles,” Dyer said. “At the heart of that circle is what is happening within the building itself. We want to welcome families and young people who can live with a good sense of independence, who would thrive if there was a vibrancy within the community itself, that they were contributing to neighbour, caring for neighbour.”
Residents will have access to individualized, light-touch support that can help them maintain their independence and address challenges related to mental health, employment, income stability or housing insecurity.
Nearby, the Trellis Bowness Hub offers employment supports, preschool and before and after-school programming, youth services and connections to other community organizations. High school students living in A New Home for Families can also access support from Trellis staff already working within local schools.
“Trellis is very intentionally structured with two pillars,” said Ashlee Mohn, Director of Engagement at Trellis Society. “One being housing and the other being community well-being. You cannot be well if you do not have a safe space to call home that you can afford. You also cannot get placed in a home with no community supports. You need both to be successful, to grow and to flourish.”
Through its “one door” model, Trellis connects individuals and families with the right services as their circumstances evolve, without requiring them to navigate multiple organizations or repeatedly tell their stories.
“Trellis is the trellis,” said Mohn. “We are not the plant or the flower that is flourishing and growing. We are the behind-the-scenes support. When people do not need us anymore, we take the trellis away and people continue to grow.”
Creating stability for generations
Construction is underway on A New Home for Families. The artwork on the hoarding around the site was done by children and youth at Trellis’s Bowness Hub. Image credit: Trellis Society
Five years from now, Sue Delesalle, Chief Financial Officer at Trellis Society, hopes A New Home for Families has become exactly what it was intended to be: a place where families know one another, support one another and create lasting relationships.
“We are committed to having this project be affordable for 40 years,” she said. ” It will continue to welcome new families and build new relationships, growing that community and having people help each other.”
For Ashlee Mohn, the project’s greatest impact extends far beyond the walls of the building.
“I think about a family that gets to live there, that avoids being at risk of eviction, avoids spending time at a family shelter,” she said. “That young person does not have to go through the trauma of losing their housing… I just think it is a generational impact that you are going to see for the young people living there with their families.”
Jeff Dyer shares that long-term vision through the story of a child whose future could be changed by having a stable place to call home.
“To me, this is a Grade 3 student right now who is living at a neighbour’s house who does not really know they are homeless, but they effectively are,” he said. “This is that kid being able to stay at Belvedere Parkway and move to Thomas B. Riley School. In 10 years, they have graduated from Bowness High School, they have lived in a stable environment, and their family has stayed together. That kid becomes a part of the Alberta economy and starts to contribute in ways that they dreamt of. Their aspirations are big and bold and hopeful, just like every other kid.”
Philanthropy can help bring the project home
A New Home for Families has advanced through funding from multiple sources, including significant government investment. Philanthropic support is now needed to help close the project’s remaining funding gap before construction is completed in 2027. Additional investment will strengthen the project’s financial position and help ensure more resources can be directed toward residents rather than long-term financing.
Image credit: Trellis Society
“I think when a philanthropic investment comes forward, it is the catalyst for an individual and/or organization to get brave,” shared Dyer. “It emboldens an agency.”
For nonprofit housing providers, philanthropy can turn an idea into action, encourage other partners to participate and reduce the debt that can limit a project’s long-term impact.
As a national connector and catalyst, Partners for Affordable Housing connects community-led projects with philanthropic capital and cross-sector partners. Through Front Door, funders can discover projects such as A New Home for Families and move transformative affordable housing projects from vision to reality.
Help create a new home for Bowness families
A New Home for Families is one of many projects featured on Front Door, Canada’s first and only affordable housing project directory.
Explore A New Home for Families on Front Door to learn more about the project and its current funding opportunities.
Don’t have a Front Door account? You can request one here: https://frontdoor.pfah.ca/signup