In the morning, the light arrives first. It spills across the floor of Margit’s room, catches the edges of her paintings, and settles gently into the corners of a space she now calls her own.

“I need light,” she says. “I always have.” It’s a simple need, but one that took years to come back to.

Long before this apartment, before Vancouver, Margit’s life began in Austria, where she spent her early years moving between homes, learning early what it meant to adapt. At 21, she came to Canada looking for something simple: a new life, a new beginning. She built a life here – work, family, a sense of normalcy.

And then, unexpectedly, something shifted.

A deeply destabilizing experience, layered with personal loss and health challenges, led her into a period she describes as losing herself. What followed were years shaped by hospital stays, treatments, and the quiet, exhausting work of finding her way back.

When Margit moved into Sanford Apartments in 2012 as one of its first residents, she was still finding her way back.

But this place, made possible through Streetohome’s support, offered something she hadn’t had in a long time. Sanford Apartments provided Margit with not just housing, but a kind of steadiness: a room filled with natural light, a neighbourhood she could walk through, and a place where nothing was temporary.

Outside, in the warmer months, you’ll often find her in the community garden – hands in the soil, fully present. Other days, she’s swimming, reading, painting, or listening to a podcast that sparks her curiosity.

There’s a rhythm to her life now. Not rushed. Not imposed. Intentionally chosen.

More than a decade later, this is the longest she has ever stayed in one place. “I really appreciate being here,” she says.  And in that quiet, sunlit room, you can see what that appreciation holds.

Because support like Streetohome’s doesn’t just create housing, it creates the conditions for someone to stay, to root, to return to themselves. And, over time, to build a life that finally feels like their own.