‘Shock’ eviction from squalid flat leaves mother and son on the street
Mary-Ann McLeod and her son Jonathan are wearing every piece of clothing they own.
Their few remaining belongings are packed into a blue nylon duffel bag and a small backpack.
They have $14 between them and nothing but another night on the street, huddling together for warmth in the autumn air, to look forward to.
“At least we have each other,” said Mary-Ann, tears streaming down her face and onto the collar of her black fleece jacket.
Four days earlier, Saskatoon Health Region inspectors deemed their squalid apartment on Avenue F South — for which they paid $918 per month — unfit for human occupation. They were subsequently evicted.
“We were in shock, but we went out peacefully,” Mary-Ann said of their departure from the apartment, where she and Jonathan slept on the floor, wrapped in blankets to avoid the cockroaches while a pair of electric heaters barely offset the draught from a broken, boarded-up window.
“After that it just (happened) so fast.”
The McLeods, who are Metis and rely on the Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID) program for support, have spent the last four nights sleeping outside. Jonathan said neither he nor his mother have had the opportunity to bathe since Friday and that pushing the wheelchair she has spent the last four years using left his feet blistered and his hands raw.
Jonathan, who has cerebral palsy and severe arthritis, said he asked the provincial Ministry of Social Services for help back in July, but that his letter wasn’t answered until this month.
The government’s response, a copy of which was provided to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, includes information about several low-income housing services and asked for a meeting on Sept. 28
“We just came back from a meeting with them. They told us that because we’re single they’re not going to help us out at all. We’re on our own,” Jonathan said Monday — the meeting was moved forward — adding that while he and Mary-Ann have heard housing might be available at the start of next month, they are still waiting for confirmation. They’re not optimistic.
“With the government refusing to help us, we can only be outside,” he said before adding: “All we’re asking for is a hotel room, just one room, just until we know that we can move in (to permanent affordable housing) on Oct. 1.”
In the meantime, he continued, he feels helpless and his mother — whom he refuses to leave — is just scared.
Jeff Redekop, the Ministry of Social Services’ executive director of income assistance, said in an interview that while he cannot comment specifically on the McLeods’ situation due to privacy legislation, the government’s primary obligation is to provide people using the SAID program with information about housing options, but “typically” allow them to make their own decisions.
The ministry is aware that people using the program have different levels of capability, Redekop said, and works hard to maintain a “very good network” of organizations that can provide short- and long-term housing options, including hotels rooms, for people.
The ministry follows up, especially in cases where properties are “placarded” by health authorities, he added.
“There are a lot of services that are available and we make sure people are aware of that, and we do our best to connect people with those services. It’s up to the person to decide what they choose to access.”
Saskatchewan NDP Social Services critic Nicole Rancourt said the government has an obligation to ensure the province’s most vulnerable citizens — especially those on the SAID program, which is open to people with “a significant and enduring disability that is of a permanent nature (and) substantially impacts daily living activities” — have a safe place to live.
“I don’t think that’s unmanageable,” the MLA for Prince Albert Northcote said, adding that while it is vital that the government dedicate sufficient resources to helping the most at-risk and vulnerable people in society, it is equally important for everyone else to pay attention to how people less fortunate than themselves are treated.
“The majority of people, if they knew about a situation like this, they wouldn’t want the family to be in the position that they’re in … But a lot of families are working to make ends meet, and so they have a hard time (paying) attention to what’s happening for our most vulnerable. But I think people in Saskatchewan … this is not what we want to see our province turn into.”
Mary-Ann, meanwhile, said she just wants a warm place to stay — and to make sure that no one else falls through the cracks the way she and her son have: “We just don’t want them to be in the same boat as we are.”