A family of four in Sault Ste. Marie is appealing to the public for help in hopes of eventually attaining stable and affordable housing.
Melissa Spooner has been living at a local shelter with her partner and their two young children for the past four months — a living situation that she says is no place for a child, due to individuals smoking fentanyl in the foyer of the shelter on a regular basis.
“My kids have to worry about whether or not they’re going to drop dead from a fentanyl overdose every morning walking out of the building to the school bus stop,” Spooner said.
After submitting countless applications to property managers and landlords in the Sault over the past few months, the family remains stuck at Pauline’s Place — a 30-bed shelter with eight additional transitional bridge units that provides emergency short-term housing for youth, women, and families who are experiencing a housing crisis — despite having income and references from locals.
The family also filed an application for social housing in November, but has yet to hear back.
Spooner believes she and her family are actively being discriminated against for disclosing the fact they’re currently living at a shelter.
“I don’t even know what to do, because the discrimination against anybody coming from here — regardless of whether or not they’re on drugs — is disgusting,” she said.
The family originally relocated to the Sault from Waterloo, Ont. on Sept. 29, 2024 in order to care for an ailing family member. Spooner says they had been assured that they would have a place to live upon their arrival in town.
But suddenly, their lives were thrown into disarray without warning.
“Literally just outside of the Sault, I got a phone call — our accommodations fell through,” Spooner recalled. “We had already sold our possessions and quit our jobs.”
With nowhere else to turn, the family ended up at Pauline’s Place.
Her partner of 15 years, Chris, found work with a well-established roofing company within a week-and-a-half of touching down in Sault Ste. Marie. Spooner has been living off employment insurance benefits, and is unable to secure a full-time job due to the fact her daughters — Peyton, 13, and Eden, 10 — must be supervised at all times while at the shelter.
Unless a landlord comes forward with a rental of some sort, the family will remain holed up at Pauline’s Place for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t know what to do anymore,” Spooner told SooToday.
“I’m just hoping someone will listen, and I’m hoping there’s property management companies out there, private landlords — somebody — who will understand that not everybody’s the same, not everybody’s situation is the same either.
“We didn’t end up here because we’re on drugs or made poor choices. We came up trying to help family, and ended up losing in the end.”
For now, Spooner has two naloxone kits for their room at the shelter, in the event that a family member comes into contact with the fentanyl smoke in the foyer. Spooner says that she became “extremely high” from the smoke at one point while walking through the foyer — and has feared the worst for her daughters ever since.
“I’m literally just begging for help at this point, for someone to say they’ll give us a chance,” she pleaded. “We’re just stuck and risking our kids’ lives on a daily basis.
“I’m frustrated and don’t know where else to turn.”