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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, November 19, 2015 | 44 Battling back from homelessness... working mom gets help by John Bkila Oakville Beaver Staff Editor's Note: The name of the local family featured in this story has been changed to protect its privacy. It's a choice no parent ever wants to face: do you pay to fix your car so you don't lose your job, or feed your children? It's more of a reality in Oakville than many would like to admit. Take Samantha, for example. She's universityeducated, employed, the mother of three. And struggling to make ends meet. She is among the working poor. "I have to make decisions like that on a regular basis: do I feed the children or get my car fixed, or pay the cable," Samantha told the Oakville Beaver. "It's always an ongoing struggle when you're a single-income family -- especially in Oakville. It's not the kind of environment you can live happily in and be financially stable in when it's single-income... Oakville is not set up that way." Samantha escaped what she describes as a "physically, mentally, emotionally and financially" abusive relationship. Three children She has three children: a 15-year-old boy and two girls aged 10 and six. "I came here completely by myself. I didn't know anybody here," said Samantha. "Basically, the expression of starting from rock bottom is what I did when I came to Oakville." Backed by a university degree, Samantha works at a distribution company, but she says it doesn't pay enough to provide all that she'd like for her family. "It makes me feel like a failure," she said of the tough choices she and her family face. "The only reason I went to university was to have a better life than I had... when you're in this situation, you're literally living pay cheque to pay cheque. When I'm sick, I still go to work." Samantha said she's lost numerous jobs because of the time she's had to take off when her children are sick. "They don't get sick between Friday and Sunday night. They don't get sick together either," she explained. "It's always a fight to get another job... it's still a very competitive market out there." In the Vital Signs 2015 report, released by the Oakville Community Foundation (OCF) last month, two of four main issues affecting local residents included the equity gap and affordable housing. The report stated the causes of the equity gap in the community are unemployment, underemployment, cost-of-living and lack of affordable housing, said OCF CEO Wendy Rinella. "The equity gap is one of the most prominent issues in our community, but it's also one of the most invisible," she said. "It's the working poor, the underemployed, those who can't achieve full-time employment. It leads to a precarious class... one that is most Sita Jayamaran likely to fall into poverty." According to the report, housing is considered affordable if it costs no more than 30 per cent of a gross household income with enough remaining to meet other daily living needs. Rinella noted, in January, the median sale price of a home was $694,000, while the living wage in Oakville is just slightly under $20 an hour, or less than $40,000 a year. Can you imagine how it must feel? "Can you imagine how it must feel to be making $40,000 a year and seeing home prices 17 times your annual income? And 96 per cent of all homes sold were unaffordable," she said. Last year, for approximately 10 months, Samantha and her family became homeless -- after no longer being able to afford government housing -- forcing Samantha to stay at women's shelters in Halton and Hamilton. For most of that time, Samantha was separated from her son after she made the difficult decision of letting him stay with a friend for the remainder of his school year. "Having someone else raise my son; he was obviously in good hands, or else I wouldn't have left him there, but that was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with," she said. "It was extremely upsetting. From conception, I've never been without him. It was hard. I've never been the kind of person who leaves my kids with anybody for a long, extended period of time... I felt like a failure. "That I couldn't be his mother the way I expected to be. I was still very much a part of his life.... I'd still speak to him every day. It was just hard having somebody else raise him (during that time)." Samantha kept looking for places to live -- all the while worrying about whether or not she would be able to pass credit checks. She would eventually find a "cramped, twobedroom apartment" where her family could be together, but it's a place she says she doesn't feel safe living in. `Unsavoury characters and cockroaches' "There are a lot of unsavoury characters here.... My children and I aren't safe here, but it's a roof over our heads. It is what it is, for now," she said. "There are cockroaches. It's not a place I Wendy Rinella Sarah McPherson but who also provide a preventative support for children in our program, so they do not drop out of school or engage in risky behaviour." In addition to its mentoring program, BBBSH connects families with different resources in the community. Through those connections, Samantha's children have received bicycles via Tim Hortons and Le Tour de Terra Cotta, and dance lessons from Dance for Life. They also regularly participate in group events BBBSH holds with its big and little counterparts -- approximately, 14-18 events every year. BBBSH works with 60-80 children-serving agencies and other organizations, such as the Halton Equity Roundtable and Our Kids Network. Working with community partners "We work with other community partners to connect them (families) to the resources they need," said Jayamaran. "To come together as a community and help a child grow up into resilient adults." An agency-endowed fund with the OCF , established in 2007 and called Futures for Kids Endowment Fund, helps BBBSH do just that. "Big Brothers Big Sisters of Halton saw the relationship with the Foundation critical to meeting the growing needs of their children in the community and for the future," said Sarah McPherson, OCF director of communications and development. Since 1998, just less than $250,000 has been funded to BBBSH through a variety of sources, such as the OCF's Community and Youth and Recreation granting programs; direct contributions from fundholders; and the BBBSH's own fund. "We've had a strong relationship with (BBBSH). As a charity, they support so many of the multi-faceted issues families encounter and a core aspect of the Foundation's model is supporting organizations that are actively focused on service delivery." For Samantha, who describes herself as a very private person, she said it took her a very long time to come to terms with the fact that she needed help. "So, the sooner you seek that help out, the better," she added. It's the working poor, the underemployed, those who can't achieve full-time employment. It leads to a precarious class... one that is mostly likely to fall into poverty. Can you imagine how it must feel to be making $40,000 a year and seeing home prices 17 times your annual income? And 96 per cent of all homes sold were unaffordable. CEO, Oakville Community Foundation Wendy Rinella would ever consider raising my children in. I'm the kind of person that wants a big backyard for them to play in.... That's one of the reasons I came to Oakville, because I heard it was clean, beautiful, but there is another side that not a lot of people know of." Wanting to find a positive male role model for her son, Samantha also began searching for mentorship programs and came across Big Brothers Big Sisters of Halton (BBBSH). Her son was matched with his big counterpart in 2012, while her eldest daughter was matched with a Big Sister more than a year ago. "They've been an incredible support system. They not only have matched my son with a positive male role model... they helped with Christmas. It seems like it's unlimited the amount of support I get from them," Samantha said. "I'm a lot more relieved than if there wasn't an organization like (BBBSH). I do think there needs to be more programs like it out there because they can only do so much." According to Sita Jayamaran, BBBSH director of programs, the organization has about 115-120 matches every year, with 100 families currently waiting for a match. "It comes back to our mission and vision... to have a community where all children reach their fullest potential through mentoring relationships. Soci-economic status should not be a deterrent...," said Jayamaran. "That's why we work hard to connect them with mentors, who act as positive role models,