For more than 55 years, WIN House has been a place of safety for women, children, and gender-diverse individuals fleeing violence in Edmonton.
What began in 1968 as a grassroots response to women experiencing homelessness has grown into one of Edmonton’s most essential shelter and support organizations. Today, WIN House operates three shelters, including two emergency shelters and a second-stage shelter supporting immigrant, refugee, and trafficked women and their children. It remains the only shelter of its kind in Canada.
Each year, WIN House provides more than a safe place to sleep. Its team offers trauma-informed, low-barrier support, including system navigation, counselling, nursing, childcare, cultural programming, and connection to long-term resources. Last year alone, WIN House sheltered 330 women and 225 children.
But the need has grown sharply.
In Edmonton, many survivors fleeing violence are facing a devastating shortage of safe, affordable housing options after emergency shelter. Only 32% of emergency shelter requests can currently be met. For second-stage housing, that number drops to just 4%.
For survivors, this gap can mean having nowhere safe to go next.
As Leslie Allen, CEO of WIN House, shared, second- and third-stage housing gives families something urgently needed after crisis: time, safety, and support.
“We can give them a couple of months just to breathe.”
The Miller Project
Image Credit: WIN House
The Miller Project is WIN House’s response to one of the most critical gaps in Alberta’s housing and gender-based violence systems.
The new five-storey development will create 64 affordable homes for women and families transitioning from emergency shelter toward long-term stability. These homes will include a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, with accessible units and flexible layouts that can adapt to the needs of different families.
All 64 homes will remain affordable for the lifetime of the building.
For WIN House, the Miller Project is about creating a clearer pathway for survivors: emergency shelter when they need immediate safety, second- and third-stage housing when they need time and support to rebuild, and a connection to permanent affordable housing when they are ready to move forward.
Leslie explains that many survivors cannot move from crisis into stability in a matter of days or weeks.
“Women sleep for the first two weeks. They’re just absolutely exhausted,” she shared. “They’re not in any frame of mind to actually start looking at the future.”
The Miller Project gives residents time and support to begin rebuilding without the immediate pressure of unaffordable rent.
The project is intentionally designed to support healing, independence, and community. Alongside safe apartment-style housing, the building will include on-site WIN House offices, communal spaces, play areas, a family resource centre, a community kitchen, a ceremony room, a sensory room, and secure entry.
As Desiree Concepcion, Capital Campaign Manager at WIN House, shared, “The space is intentional. We wanted to ensure that there was enough space being provided for quiet activities, reflection, just being able to heal in a way that is meaningful for each one of the women.”
Why this project matters
Image Credit: WIN House
For many women and children fleeing violence, emergency shelter is only the first step. Without safe and affordable housing to move into afterward, families can be forced into unsafe living situations, hidden homelessness, or a return to violence.
The Miller Project will help change that.
By adding 64 affordable homes, WIN House will significantly expand Edmonton’s second- and third-stage housing capacity and support more survivors as they recover, rebuild, and plan for the future.
The project will also double WIN House’s current capacity, helping more families access not only a safe home, but the long-term supports that make stability possible, including immigration support, substance use treatment connections, counselling, health care, cultural support, and community-based programming.
For Desiree, the message to donors is clear: the Miller Project is about much more than helping fund a building.
“It’s far more than transactional, and it’s more than just funding four walls,” she said. “It’s really about helping families rebuild.”
That legacy is measured in safety, stability, and the chance for families to move forward on their own terms.
A project ready for partnership
Image Credit: WIN House
The Miller Project has strong public-sector support, with funding from municipal and provincial government. WIN House is also contributing $1.5 million toward the project.
But to bring this vision fully to life, WIN House is raising $7.5 million.
That funding will help transform the Miller Project from an urgently needed housing development into a place of long-term safety, healing, and possibility for survivors and their families.
WIN House is also designing the project around partnership. Rather than trying to deliver every service itself, the organization will bring in expert community partners to support residents with services such as nursing, counselling, cultural programming, family support, and system navigation.
Leslie says this approach is designed so residents do not have to “start their story all over again” each time they move forward. They can build relationships with trusted supports and carry those connections with them into permanent affordable housing.
Through Front Door, Partners for Affordable Housing is helping bring visibility to projects like the Miller Project: community-led housing solutions that are ready for partnership and positioned for long-term impact.
For donors, this is an opportunity to help close a critical gap in Edmonton’s housing continuum and support a project that will change what is possible for survivors of violence.
As Desiree put it, “The need is greater than ever.”
“When donors are supporting projects like the Miller Project, it’s really about lasting change,” she shared. “It’s an opportunity for them to really fund and create doors that never existed before.”
Help take the Miller Project to the next level
WIN House has the experience, partnerships, and vision to deliver a project that will save lives and support families for generations.
What is needed now is philanthropic support to help take the Miller Project across the finish line.
With philanthropic support, the Miller Project can help ease pressure on emergency shelters, nearly double Edmonton’s second-stage housing capacity, and create a safer path forward for more survivors and their children.
By supporting WIN House, donors can help create 64 permanent affordable homes where survivors of violence can breathe, heal, reconnect, and begin again.
To learn more about the Miller Project and how to support WIN House, visit the project profile on Front Door or connect with Partners for Affordable Housing.