Building Safety, Together

Women In Need (WIN) House of Edmonton has been selected to develop non-market housing at 4910 Matheson Way NW in the community of Miller. This development will provide rental accommodations to families rebuilding their lives after escaping violence.

Our vision is to create a warm and inviting environment where people can rebuild their lives and families in safety and peace. Community support is essential to that process – that's why we hope this building will become an active part of the Miller community, with space for community get-togethers and opportunities for community involvement.

About Us:

Since 1968, WIN House has offered families a safe place to flee from violence. We opened Canada’s first purpose-built shelter for women and their children fleeing violence in 1982, and since then, we have expanded to offer three shelter facilities in Edmonton, with capacity for 72 individuals.

We’re proud to have helped thousands of people escape violence and rebuild their lives over the course of many years – in 2023-2024 alone, we helped house and support nearly 400 individuals. But we know there is more to do – last year, we had to turn away 1,982 requests for help because of a lack of space in our facilities. There is huge demand for more access to help and services, and WIN House is working to meet that need.

WIN Together – The Miller Project

WIN House was the successful proponent to develop 4910 Matheson Way NW into housing. We acquired the site through the City of Edmonton’s Surplus School site process – you can read more about that process here.

WIN House is proposing a 64-unit affordable housing project for women and children fleeing violence. This building will be a second-stage housing, meaning it is not primarily intended for women and children who have just escaped a violent situation, but rather those who have already connected to services and are ready to rebuild their lives.

Tenants will be accepted on a referral basis, meaning they will be screened by our WIN House team before being offered a space. Residents will pay rent as a proportion of their income. The maximum tenancy duration will be two years, with an expected average tenancy of 18 months, based on our experience with other housing of this type.

The five-storey apartment building will feature 64 residential units, including a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units The ground floor will house WIN House’s offices and essential communal areas for supportive services, including a multi-purpose/community room, children’s playroom, Indigenous healing room, and other shared spaces.

WIN House will offer on-site services to tenants, including counselling, assistance in arranging future housing, legal advocacy, health services, skill building and training activities, and more. We know from our decades of experience doing this work how essential these types of support are to the recovery process, and how vital the sense of living in a safe and supportive environment is to individuals working to rebuild their lives.

Public Engagement

We hope that this building will become a source of pride for this community and potentially offer opportunities for connection and community building to the Miller community and beyond.

We know change in your neighbourhood can raise questions and concerns, and we are committed to working with the community to answer questions and find opportunities to make this building a successful fit for the neighbourhood.

Our public engagement on this project will have three phases:

Phase 1: Community Outreach (July & August)

We’ve been reaching out to connect with community members. We have doorknocked in the area, sent letters and emails to local businesses, met with the City Councillor, set up this project website and our email, and we’ve been responding to questions we receive from the public.

Phase 2: Community Roundtables (August)

We hosted two community roundtables, one online and one in-person, to have smaller group conversations about the proposal and gather insights on how to make this project a success in Miller. We also conducted a public survey to collect feedback on elements of the proposal.

We will take your feedback and evaluate ways to incorporate it into the proposal for the site. We’ll report back on what we heard and what we changed following this phase of engagement.

Phase 3: Consultation and Information Sessions (September)

In September, we will host a larger open house session to share our amended plans and engage in conversation with the community. We will also host an online information session for those who are not able to attend the in-person session and will share that recording on this website.

We will collect the feedback gathered in this phase in the final What We Heard report that will be submitted to the City, and we will review the feedback to see where we can further refine our proposal.