An unfair decision was reversed just in time to prevent a woman from being evicted.

Marianne, who receives Persons With Disability (PWD), was moving and provided her landlord with one month’s notice to end her tenancy, as required. She also called the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (MSDPR) to put a stop on her rent payments to her previous landlord and update her information so payments from the ministry would go to her new landlord at the beginning of the following month.

Marianne was surprised to learn that her new landlord didn’t receive her rent payment from the ministry as arranged. She called MSDPR to find out what happened and was told that her stop payment had not been processed and the rent was sent to her former landlord. She was told to ask her former landlord to return the rent and if she couldn’t get the rent back, then she could apply for a crisis supplement for her shelter.

Marianne tried to get her former landlord to return her rent but was denied. She was also denied a crisis supplement.

Not knowing where else to turn for help and facing eviction, Marianne reached out to us.

We contacted the ministry to assess if they acted reasonably in denying Marianne’s application for a crisis supplement to pay her rent because it seemed that Marianne had provided the ministry with proper notification about her change in landlord and the ministry had not processed the information correctly.

In response, the ministry reviewed her request and agreed that Marianne’s request for a crisis supplement for her rent should be approved.