Hello, Everyone:
I have recently fled an abusive and toxic common-law relationship and have been staying at my Facebook female friend's 1 bedroom studio apartment, since July 12th (last Wednesday) when I left with the help of her very kind neighbour whom she knows who drove down to my former residence (a house) and picked me and my belongings up.

I have been searching for an available room to rent, but I am finding this to be rather daunting. I'm on income support (it's what they call it here in Alberta) which was approved earlier this past week. So I have the funding in place, including health benefits, and will also have $1000 which I have been approved for that they call the 'flee fund' I can use towards rent.

I also left 3 cats behind with my spouse. The oldest two are his anyway, although I had named our youngest male cat, but I cannot afford to take him. So it's just myself. I have NO family members who I can stay with here in Edmonton, or Alberta for that matter. I am completely starting over, at the age of 56.

Please pray that before or by the time that my friend returns from Jamaica (she also has gotten married a month ago and tends to fly back and forth from there to Canada every so often, but I don't wish to be a burden to her anymore than I have to be; that I will find a place I can call home that I can move to. Because I absolutely do NOT want to be forced to return to my former spouse. I tried to leave him last year (in August) and had gone to a women's shelter an hour's drive outside of Edmonton, and because I simply had no-where else I could go, I had to go back to him. He is verbally, emotionally, and mentally abusive towards me and can easily become angry and volatile, has called me derogatory words/names, and the only reason that I had stayed with him as long as I did in this 10 year relationship is because of the cats, as he has had two heart attacks (the 2nd one happened shortly before I had met him and he was on work disability at the time) and I was afraid that our cats could potentially become suddenly abandoned or orphaned, and end up being put down, as the two oldest females are seniors and likely would not easily be adopted by anyone.

However, the living environment had just become TOO toxic for me, along with other factors for me to continue living there, including our basement next-door neighbour woman who is a drug addict with mental health issues and the past couple of months, has had these outbursts with yelling, and swearing that made me afraid of her to the point that I told our landlord I was avoiding her at all costs.

I'm becoming more and more anxious about my situation, and while I have very recently applied with and talked to someone at this organization called Civida for subsidized/supportive housing, there may be a long wait list to get into one of their buildings.

Thank you sincerely for all of your prayers and support.