A WOMAN is being kicked out of her 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥hood home in a heartbreaking twist following her mom’s death from pancreatic cancer.
Mackenzie Stevenson, 21, says she’s being forced out of her city-run public housing due to a lease technicality.
Mackenzie Stevenson telling CBC about her experience being forced out of her 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥hood homeCredit: CBC
Stevenson with her mom, Michelle, who died in NovemberCredit: CBC
The college student has lived in a non-profit housing unit in St. John’s, Canada’s easternmost city, with her mom, Michelle, since she was four years old.
However, Michelle became sick with cancer last summer and died four months later.
Stevenson said her mom was under the impression that her daughter was on the lease for their three-bedroom house before she died.
However, officials told her she had to move out after her mom’s death because she never physically signed the lease paperwork.
“The funeral was Friday and I was supposed to lose my house on Monday,” Stevenson told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
City officials eventually gave Stevenson a two-month extension after her mom’s funeral in November.
But now Stevenson is supposed to be out of her home by January 31.
“I was kind of just sitting around procrastinating moving out, hoping that somebody could do something,” Stevenson said.
“I was just kind of left in the dust.”
Stevenson said the city didn’t tell her she had to physically sign the lease to keep the house until it was too late.
Plus, Stevenson said she never received a verbal or written notice of eviction herself.
She said city officials have only spoken to her family members about the eviction.
A communications manager for the city said the lease was terminated immediately after Michelle’s death.
“When a lease owner passes, the lease is terminated effective immediately,” the city official told CBC.
The funeral was Friday and I was supposed to lose my house on Monday.”
Mackenzie StevensonCBC
“The housing division may offer an extension should the family members living in the unit need more time to find a place to live.”
The housing unit is expected to be put back on a waiting list for non-profit housing.
Stevenson is devastated that her mom’s wishes for her to stay in the house haven’t been kept.
“One thing my mom wanted to make sure of was the fact that I still had a house to live in, as any mom would,” Stevenson said.
“I moved in here when I was four,” she recalled.
“I can remember sitting at the kitchen table out there and blowing out my fifth 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day candles.”
The city of St. John’s hasn’t responded to The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
Stevenson and her mom, who died from pancreatic cancerCredit: CBC