Jenny & Mark
I still remember the feeling in the pit of my stomach, when that sheriff knocked on our door. It was the day everything changed. Up until then, we we’re doing just fine. We had our share of difficulties throughout life. It wasn’t perfect and money was tight, but we had built ourselves a little life that worked. Until it all came crashing down.
We had been living in an apartment downtown and always paid our rent on time, but they wanted us out, they wanted everybody out. A renoviction. We knew enough to call the Landlord Tenant Board, we knew we were eligible for a trial. The problem being this was during the pandemic. They had just started online trials; it was a new system. Like many others, we were not given proper notice. This worked in the landlord’s favour, and the next day a sheriff arrived at our door. We had 10 days to get out.
Without a stable place to land we found ourselves in a temporary housing shelter. We had no other choice but knew this wasn’t a good place for us. We are both recovered from addiction. In this shelter, drug use was allowed on site, and it was everywhere. It wasn’t long before the stress, worry, and access to drugs got us both back using. Something we had worked so hard to escape. Then one day, Mark was arrested. I was left, all by myself.
I couldn’t stay at the shelter; it wasn’t a good place for me. I bounced around to different couches but eventually I was out of options. I found myself seeking shelter with strangers in an abandoned building…in the dead of winter. This was when I called the YWCA emergency shelter. It took a few times, but I was persistent, I wanted something better for myself.
I was there for a few weeks when I was told there was a spot for me at a place called Oakdale Commons. A place that had more stability and opportunity for me to get back on my feet. When I got here, I was 119lbs and I’m 5’10”, so I was truly hanging on by a thread. That was 17 months ago. I still have a hard time describing how much this place has changed my life. I was met with compassion when I arrived here. I was given a safe place to land, to call home. It took awhile for me to settle in, but once I did everything changed. This place is different than other shelters. I was given guidance and resources. So many helping hands to answer questions, to check in on me. Really just the foundational support everyone needs and deserves. A few months into me being here Mark was released and was able to stay close by. As I tell this story we’re both sitting here 12 months sober. We’ve worked incredibly hard to get to this point and we just put down first and last month’s rent for our own apartment. Finally. It’s been six years. SIX. I can’t believe it. We’ve lost so many friends to addiction. They weren’t as lucky as we were. If it hadn’t been for YWCA Niagara, we would likely wouldn’t be here either.
We knew we wanted to tell our story. Mark has said this for months. He’d say to me, “we have to say something, we have to tell people about this place, it could save someone’s life”. And he’s right, because it saved mine.