A Halifax family is finally able to be back together after being forced to separate because of a lack of family shelters in the city.

Lara Simpson, her Scottish husband Steve, and their two children has been living in an RV that they bought after returning to Canada following an extended stay in Europe.

After exploring much of Canada, they decided last summer to settle in Nova Scotia, sell the RV, and look for work and an apartment.

“We had a tentative buyer set up for the RV, thinking we would sell it when we got here which would help us set up a home and then job prospects for the future,” Simpson told CTV Atlantic.

But the RV sale fell through, and as the family’s savings dwindled, they were forced to live in their RV in a parking lot. They also quickly realized that having no fixed address meant no job prospects.

With winter approaching, they knew they couldn’t stay in the RV much longer.

“We eventually got to the point where we realized we needed help, we need to get out of this situation we're in,” says Simpson.

The family wanted to apply for income assistance, but in order to qualify, they needed either a fixed address or an address at a shelter. But there are no shelters in Halifax that can accept entire families.

With no other choice, the family had to split up. Simpson's husband stayed in the RV while she and her two children moved into Adsum House, a shelter in downtown Halifax for women and children.

Administrators at the shelter had just started a new program called Diverting Families, which aims to decrease the amount of time that families stay in a shelter, or avoid shelter life altogether. The program offers families immediate help with things like rent and general support.

Melissa Matheson, the case manager for Diverting Families, says the program is already overwhelmed with demand.

“I think right now we have currently 14 families under case load and we just started in September. Over the last week we've had six intakes,” Matheson says, adding applications are coming in from all over the Halifax region.

The program was able to find an apartment for Simpson and her family, which meant that after months apart, they could finally be back together.

“The looks on my kids’ faces to be able to wake up in the morning with their dad there, that is just the most important thing,” she says.

“Being together as a family, being put back together as a family, it's the most unbelievable feeling.”

With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown