When Mahmoud Ali finishes his shift as a service technician, it's an easy walk home, across the parking lot to an aluminum toy trailer.

The 14-foot-long, uninsulated structure on the outskirts of Edmonton will be his home for the foreseeable future.

He moved into the trailer five months ago, and plans to spend the winter there.

Like so many Albertans employed in the trades, he says he knows just how much fortunes can change in a year.

This time last winter, he was living comfortably in a modest apartment on Edmonton's Jasper Avenue main street.

But since moving from Kuwait to Canada three years ago, Ali has struggled to keep a steady job in the trades.

'That's not me. I want to work'

He couldn't find work near his home and his wife in Rocky Mountain House.

Feeling listless, he moved to Edmonton in search of work so he could help pay the bills and cover the mortgage on their modest mobile home, leaving his wife behind.

He refuses to collect EI and sit at home.

"I know guys, they make 50 bucks an hour and they don't want to work for $15 an hour because they make 50. That's not me," he said. "I want to work. Anything to keep myself busy until I find a good chance."

Mahmoud Ali slept in his pickup truck for months before deciding to sleep in his trailer this winter. (CBC Edmonton ) When he landed a job with an oil and gas company in the city's southwest, he rented the Jasper Avenue apartment.But soon the Alberta economy went into a tailspin. Fewer contracts were coming to the oil and gas company where he works, and his employer was forced to scale back hours for everyone on staff.

Now he's working three days a week.

"We worked 12 hours every day until the economy came down, and then we started working 10 hours, and then after that eight hours," said Ali. "I had to let go of my apartment. I couldn't afford it anymore and I didn't want to lose my job."

When the money started running short, Ali moved out of the apartment to move in with a friend. After a few weeks, he could no longer make the $500 monthly rent payments.

He moved out and spent the next six and half months sleeping in his pickup truck.

Exhausted from sleeping in parking lots, he outfitted his toy trailer with a small cot and electric heater. He got permission from his boss to park it on the company lot.

That was five months ago.

Ali has been sleeping in this aluminium trailer for five months. (Mahmoud Ali) "The nice people at my company don't mind if I keep my trailer in the yard," he said, requesting to keep the company's name confidential. "Some people are pretty helpful in this country. I'm not worried about my life here."

Even as the temperatures plunges to brutal lows, Ali remains optimistic about his modest living quarters. He gets by with little more than a quilt, and a few wool blankets, to fend off the chill.

"It's pretty cold," Ali admitted. "I sleep on a small single mattress. A couple days ago a friend told me, 'Hey they are selling heating blankets.' So I bought one from Canadian Tire and it's working pretty well."

'We can't sit and ask for help'

Last week, he found out he'll be back soon working full-time hours. Still, even though business has picked back up, Ali remains fearful about the future.

Money is still tight and he can't shake the feeling that the bottom could fall out any time. He plans to stay in the trailer for the next year so he can save up, just in case the economy takes another turn for the worse.

More than his warm bed and the comforts of home, Ali misses his wife and two dogs. But he's willing to tough it out.

"My wife, she doesn't love it, but she realizes we have to do this. We can't sit and ask for help," he said.

"It's not really that difficult. I feel that I'm lucky more than a lot of people. If you see what's going on right now, we are very lucky people."