Pregnant woman desperate to find shelter after eviction from city housing in Hamilton
Jennifer Foster says her life began to unravel when her CRA account was hacked
Days away from her baby boy's due date, Jennifer Foster is preparing for heartache.
The Hamilton woman, 41, has no permanent housing and fears if she doesn't find a place for her and her newborn to stay, she will have to place him in foster care.
She spoke to CBC Hamilton earlier this week. As the baby kicked, visibly moving her belly, she began to cry.
"I want more time with him," she said.
When Foster was seven months pregnant in October, she and her two children, aged 6 and 10, were evicted from city-run housing over unpaid rent.
Since then, Foster says she calls multiple shelters every day, including one that accepts families. Every day, she's told there's no space.
Foster has already had to split up her family, with one child staying with his father while Foster and her other child stay with a friend. Foster sleeps on the couch, a precarious arrangement that's temporary and only until she gives birth, she said.
"I'm waiting for the inevitable now," said Foster, who told CBC Hamilton on Wednesday she had gone into labour.
"I'm going to have a baby and I have nowhere to bring him home to and that's where the story ends."
She said she's speaking out as a last ditch effort to find somewhere for them both to go. Fearing it may be too late to help her own situation, she said raising awareness could help other families experiencing homelessness in Hamilton.
"I think there's something missing in the system," Foster said. "I can't have slipped through that many cracks — I'm making myself obvious. I'm contacting places over and over again. Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing something?"
CRA account was hacked, freezing access, benefits
Foster said her life began to unravel when her Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) account was hacked in 2020 and frozen on and off for over two years, setting off a chain-reaction of barriers she was unable to overcome.
Hackers accessed 48,000 CRA accounts that year, as previously reported by CBC News. They changed direct deposit banking information on 12,700 accounts, and applied and collected benefits. CBC Hamilton viewed a letter the CRA sent to Foster asking for documentation to help unlock her account, citing the hack.
There was no single hotline Foster could've called to unlock her account, said Ritesh Kotak, a cyber security and technology analyst and technology lawyer. Instead, victims of the hack had to navigate submitting documents to multiple agencies, including the CRA, police and Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
"It's unfair to [expect] an individual who's going through a very traumatic moment to know exactly what the next steps are in a very complicated process where there is no playbook of how to actually solve and remedy these types of situations," Kotak said.
The CRA did not provide a comment before this story was published.
Foster stopped receiving her federal child benefit payments and was unable to access the proof of income documents required by city housing to keep her subsidized rent rate, she said.
As a result, in 2022, the city quadrupled her rent to over $900 a month, according to documents seen by CBC Hamilton. She was also cut off from Ontario Works, and said she relied on food banks to feed her kids.
CityHousing CEO Adam Sweedland said in a statement to CBC Hamilton that the corporation has a "robust" eviction prevention policy and tenant support workers assist tenants with any documentation issues. It takes into consideration "exceptional circumstances" that prevent the tenant from providing proof of income, which is needed to continue subsidized rent.
"Eviction is the last resort for CityHousing Hamilton when all other processes and possible remedies have been exhausted," Sweedland said.
Foster said she did provide a letter to CityHousing from the CRA notifying her it suspected her information had been compromised, as well as a police report, but was told it wasn't enough.
Unable to pay the rent difference, Foster owed nearly $17,000 by last August, when the city's case to evict her was heard at the LTB, according to the tribunal's decision.
City pursued eviction at LTB
That same month, Hamilton city council, which has also declared a state of emergency for homelessness, bolstered a fund to help tenants to access legal representation to effectively fight evictions at the LTB.
That support did not reach Foster, who represented herself at the hearing. In his decision, the adjudicator doubted that her child benefits had been withheld but even if they were, he said that was "not a valid reason for withholding rent. The CRA is not liable for the arrears."
The city's legal counsel argued, successfully, that it had tried to prevent Foster's eviction but it "should not be responsible for providing free accommodation if the tenant does not have income," said the decision.
At the time of the hearing, Foster had finally restored her account with the CRA and offered to pay back what she owed through a payment plan, the tribunal decision said. She also requested six months to find a new home if she were to be evicted.
Both of her requests were denied as she did not "demonstrate any real hardship or substantive reason for not paying her rent" and the adjudicator wasn't convinced she'd "made any real effort to work with the landlord toward finding a solution."
Foster was ordered to move out within four weeks.
With her stuff packed in garbage bags, she was evicted by a sheriff in October while her kids were at school, she said.
Sitting outside afterwards, she called the city and was given a list of housing resources including shelters for women fleeing domestic violence and Good Shepherd's Family Centre.
Foster said she's called every number on that list as well as numerous shelters, but has yet to find help.
"I lost hope after I got evicted," Foster said. "The endless calls to the shelters and being told no, I lost hope."
Shelter turns away up to 90 families a month
The city missed a vital opportunity to prevent Foster and her children from becoming homeless, said Good Shepherd's Grace Baldwin, director of Hamilton's only family shelter.
"Having someone lose affordable housing in this housing climate is just tragic in my mind, especially when people are becoming homeless and they're turning to the shelters and we don't have enough space to serve the people who need it," she said.
Every month, Good Shepherd turns away 60 to 90 families seeking emergency shelter, Baldwin said. The shelter's 80 beds are filled, as well as 52 hotel rooms leased by the city.
"There are a lot of people in our community falling through the cracks," Baldwin said.
And Foster shouldn't have to face putting her child in care because she's experiencing homelessness, she said.
"Homelessness is already such a traumatic experience," she said. "And we really believe in doing our best to keep families united to maintain their routines and their safety and security by being together."
Housing director Michelle Baird said Foster and others in similar situations can call shelters, the YWCA, or the city's housing services division for help. Families can also apply to the city for financial support to make up for rent arrears, or for help with first and last month's rent.
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