A pregnant mom and her disabled son are worried they will be on the streets if they don’t get help soon.
Five months into her high-risk pregnancy, Christina Klotz doesn’t know what the next move is for herself and her six-year-old son, Chase, who has cerebral palsy.
“I have no idea where I’m going next. I don’t know what my next step is or what I’m going to do, because nobody wants to help,” she said.
Klotz, 35, has been without a home for the last few months, losing her apartment of five years in the fall after her landlord died and the building was sold.
While the County of Wellington housing services and Stepping Stone are working to help her find a place, they haven't found anything suitable yet, and the clock is ticking.
In the meantime, she’s been temporarily staying with a friend who gave up her bed for Klotz and Chase to share.
Since the person she's staying with got the small one-bedroom apartment through housing services, Klotz can only stay for 14 days at a time each, couch surfing for the days in between before she can come back.
But even that option has run its course, and the property manager wants her to leave.
“I have maybe another week or a couple days, I’m not really sure I’m ready for that,” she said.
Her partner, Ryan DeBattista, has a room in a shared building. But it’s small, not accessible, and not safe because of drug use from other tenants in the common areas.
“I don’t even let him come over,” DeBattista said of Chase. “She comes over, she’s there for like two seconds. I barely stay there. It’s $900 storage.”
Both Klotz and DeBattista are on Ontario Works; after rent is paid, DeBattista only has $233 left for basic needs, while Klotz gets around $1,000 a month from OW and the child tax credit for herself and Chase.
Considering even a one-bedroom apartment in Guelph averages around $2,000 a month, it’s not enough.
She just put all her paperwork through for Chase to get a disability tax credit and Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities Program, which turns into ODSP when he turns 18. But it takes time for those to process, and she needs a stable address to receive them.
She’s also on a waiting list for respite care, but the wait is long; she’s already been on the list for four years.
“I need help with Chase. I can’t do it by myself,” she said.
Klotz has been in a precarious situation since losing her apartment of five years in the fall.
Since caring for Chase is a full-time job in itself, she hasn’t worked since he was born. He can’t walk well on his own, using either his wheelchair or a mobility device – though he can’t go far with it. He wears leg braces, and needs help getting dressed and into his chair. He can eat finger foods but struggles with utensils, so Klotz typically feeds him.
He’s still in pull ups because he’s having a hard time with potty training due to his balance. Born 26 weeks premature, his immune system is weak and he gets sick easily – so any precarious living situation, especially a tent or shelter, is not ideal.
Klotz said he struggles with his emotions, so they have a husky named Everest to help keep him calm.
He also sees a speech therapist and physiotherapist once a month, and occasionally an eye specialist, though Klotz noted his speech and mobility is getting better over time.
Klotz has her own appointments to monitor her pregnancy two or three times a month in Hamilton, since she had a cervical stitch put in to protect the pregnancy and prevent preterm birth.
“It’s exhausting,” she said. “I’m a high risk pregnancy, so I’m not even supposed to be up and moving around a whole lot. But in this situation, I don’t have a choice.”
While they would love to find something together, DeBattista said he just wants to make sure they have a stable, safe roof over their heads.
“I wake up in the morning, and the first thing I think of is that I gotta find some place for these guys. Plain and simple,” DeBattista said. “They need housing.”
“My next option is going to be a tent somewhere,” Klotz said.
“I don’t want to live in a tent because I don’t want to risk my child’s safety,” she said. “This little guy is my life."
She needs somewhere safe to go, and she's not the only one.
Guelph has seen a significant rise in families experiencing homelessness: 2023 saw an average of 20 families experiencing homelessness, up from four in 2022.
The increase is “largely attributed to the lack of affordable options in the community, as well as the Landlord Tenant Board catching up from the backlog created after the 2021 rent freeze,” said Mark Poste, director of housing with the County of Wellington Housing Services.
In response, the county reopened two 24-hour shelters in November targeted at families with young children and teens: one on Waterloo Ave and another on Highway 6.
The location on Highway 6 was initially planned to be run as a substance-free emergency shelter site, but is temporarily being operated as a family shelter space “to help meet the increased demand of families experiencing homelessness in the community,” Poste said.
The shelters have a total of 38 rooms, and have averaged at around 80 per cent occupancy over the last month.
Stepping Stone executive director Gail Hoekstra said they will always find room for families in need.
But neither shelter is a good option for someone in Klotz’s position: the shelter on Highway 6 is on the outskirts of town, and the other is a small, shared space with stairs.
“I just can’t be stuck in the middle of nowhere,” she said. She can’t carry Chase up and down stairs, either.
Poste said pregnant women are encouraged to use supports like Michael House in Guelph, but the wait list is long – too long for Klotz.
“Where there are families or individuals with disabilities that can’t be addressed in the system, then partners (work) towards finding alternative options,” Poste said.
But Klotz has been in this position for months already. While she finally had a call back from Stepping Stone last week where she was told she was being made a priority, she’s not holding her breath.
“But I’m still trying to see what else I could do. There’s still not a whole lot of help, I’m still relying on people. I don’t get my hopes up on the first thing, I want to keep looking and figure it out,” she said, adding that the city needs more resources for struggling parents.
“This city is my home. I’m five months pregnant, and I’ve only got four months left. What am I gonna do?”
