For the first time in years, Jerry Power and Sandra Graham will be celebrating Christmas with a roof over their heads.

Both are in their late 50s and had been living in a van in Cambridge for over three years.

Now, they say, they are thankful to be in an apartment for the holidays.

“It’s still hard to believe that we’re finally out of the car,” Graham says.

After a lengthy dispute with an insurance company, she said she received about $1,100 per month as a result of a cycling crash that left her unable to work.

She and Power, her common-law husband, were evicted from their apartment in the meantime, and were since unable to secure affordable housing on that income.

“We were a middle class couple, who had a good life. We had a good place, a good apartment. We had things going for us. We were going to start our own business, and our life just crumbled,” Power says.

Since their story originally aired on CTV, the couple has moved into a new apartment thanks to help from a number of resources in the region.

The couple say they are thankful for the government agencies that came together to help them.

They also say they are thankful for the support of their community, which rallied to them with offers of gift cards, warm accommodation and more.

Though they are grateful, Power says, the system still needs fixing.

Last month, the region launched a campaign to end chronic homelessness by 2020.

That goal was set with a target of $500,000 in donations to help house over 250 people who are homeless in Waterloo Region.