Kim and her daughter Leeanna are residents at Muncey Place Supportive Housing, operated by Our Place. But, it wasn’t long ago that they were both living on the streets of Victoria, desperate for safety and shelter.

“My daughter had always had stable market housing and been successful. We both worked jobs, good jobs,” Kim says of the time before she was homeless.

Kim grew up in foster care, moving from home to home after being separated from her mother, a residential school survivor, at just six years old. She married young and had her children early in life. Her marriage didn’t last, but she raised her children and worked as an in-home care worker while they were young.

After a serious car accident, she was prescribed Demerol (a morphine-like substance) for the pain. When the doctor stopped her prescription, she had already developed a reliance on the drug and was still in pain. Feeling hopeless, she turned to heroin.

Unable to continue working, she lived in a supportive housing facility and remained stable enough to keep her relationships strong with her children and grandchildren.

Leeanna grew up surrounded by stability and care, thanks to Kim’s hard work and protection. Everything changed with a single phone call Kim received at home. Leeanna, a law student and intern, had been studying for an upcoming exam while caring for her newborn daughter. Her husband was away in Edmonton, driving to visit family, when he was tragically killed in a fatal shooting. The perpetrator was unknown — a random act of violence that took the life of a father and husband.

Additionally, Leeanna had lived with heart disease for most of her life. The shock of her husband’s tragic death placed immense strain on her body, ultimately leading to hospitalization, where she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Her condition severely reduced oxygen to her brain, and her health declined rapidly.

In the months that followed, Kim describes watching her daughter lose pieces of herself—her education, her sense of purpose, her belief in her future. In an effort to manage both the physical pain and overwhelming grief, Leeanna turned to drugs. Over time, the addiction took hold, and she lost her housing.

Their struggles began to converge, driven by a mother’s desperation to save her child. At the facility where Kim was living, guests were not permitted. But as her daughter suffered on the streets, Kim felt she had no choice but to act.

“She had pneumonia, so I snuck her in to sleep out of the cold for just three nights. I couldn’t let her die on the streets,” says Kim as quiet tears slip down her cheeks. She quickly wipes at her eyes and apologizes for crying as she remembers her daughter’s pain.

When the housing facility found out, Kim was evicted. She joined her daughter, where they sheltered on Pandora Ave.

“I barely remember our first weeks homeless. We were just trying to survive and keep moving. Every morning, we had to gather up everything we owned and try to move. At one point, I needed spinal surgery. And while I was trying to recover from that, I was much slower. We lost a lot of belongings because we couldn’t move quickly enough.”

As they fought each day just to keep safe and warm, they would spend their days at Our Place, finding a sense of safety and welcome at the Community Centre. They sipped hot coffee at the nutrition bar to warm up from the cold and used the hygiene services to shower and care for themselves. Over time, they began to build relationships with staff—connections grounded in trust, consistency, and care— that helped them feel seen and supported.

As they continued to visit, they noticed how many people came through and found help. The other Family Members whose lives had been transformed through the support they found were personal friends, and their stories brought Kim hope. Over time, they came to really trust the staff and were ready for help.

Due to the very high need for supportive housing, it took a long time for Kim and her daughter to find a home. But they stayed the course, supported by the relationships they had built with the Our Place team and the services they could access at the Community Centre.

“Our Place called and told us we had housing — and housing together! I felt so lucky that we had someone looking out for us.”

Kim and her daughter moved into Muncey Place and it has changed their lives. They’re safe, they have the dignity of a home, and have access to all the services Our Place can provide. They have laundry machines, a doctor who visits the site, and even picnic benches where they sit and enjoy the early spring sunshine. They sit together and look at photos and messages Leanna’s daughter, a successful optician, has sent that morning. The staff at Muncey Place affectionately call her Kimmy, and always have a hug or a listening ear for them both.

The road ahead will still be tough for Kim and her daughter as they both get back on their feet, get healthy, and pursue market housing. But, as they walk that road, they’ll have support every step of the way.