'Homeless overnight': She works full time, and sleeps in her car
CBC
As she delivered her fall economic update earlier this week, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told the House of Commons "our country needs more homes — and we need more of them, fast."
For one Ontario woman who's been living in her car since August, fast can't come fast enough.
The 45-year-old woman has been sleeping in her vehicle for the last three months while working full time and trying to find a new place to live. CBC News has agreed not to name her for safety reasons.
She told her story from a parking lot not far from London, Ont., where she had parked her vehicle for the night.
"Sometimes you can't find a safe place to sleep," she said. "I tend to sleep at bank [parking lots] because banks have cameras and I feel secure and safe there."
She relies on a wool blanket to keep warm, cardboard window blinds carved from boxes for privacy and the goodwill of business owners to use the bathroom. She's learned that Tim Hortons is a good place to connect to WiFi.
Last night she didn't need to check the temperature to see the nights are getting colder as December draws near.
"I had a cup of ice in my vehicle, I went to bed and the next morning. I got up and I realized it was still a cup of ice," she said. "That was alarming."
And while she may, for now, be experiencing homelessness, she's not unemployed. She continues to work the same retail marketing job she's held for two years. Her employer has good benefits, and covers her gas and cellphone bill so she can travel to meet customers across southwestern Ontario, from Collingwood to Windsor to Niagara — and everywhere in between.
Her job pays just under $20 an hour in a province with a $16.55 adult minimum wage.
So how did she end up homeless?
It all started with a historic rainstorm last August. At the time, she was living in a basement suite in Glencoe, Ont., a town of just over 2,000 people located about 50 kilometres southwest of London.
Her living space filled with a foot of water — and when her landlord asked her to end her lease to make way for months of repair work, she agreed. Her possessions that were not too water damaged to keep are now in two storage lockers.
Since then, she's been living in her Honda. When she's not meeting with a client, she's looking for places to live. She has filled out scores of rental applications but one barrier keeps getting in the way: a poor credit score.
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