Editor's note: Since Carrie McAstocker's shared her story with The Citizen Wednesday, readers have stepped forward with donations. One has already dropped off a cheque for the full $2,500, giving McAstocker the ability to secure her room in Kamloops. An update will be in Friday's paper, but here's the original story:
Ever since Carrie McAstocker's mother died three years ago, she's been looking for a way to leave Prince George and get closer to family support in Kamloops. For the 54-year-old, it's a need, not a want, and one her health care team has said would improve her quality of life as a quadriplegic.
"If I could get to Kamloops I know I'd thrive so much better than I am now," says McAstocker, who wants to be near her sister and points to difficult winters, loneliness and depression as part of her daily life here.
In March, McAstocker learned an apartment building had room, and so she reached out to the Ministry of Social Development to help with her moving expenses.
That's been denied and now McAstocker faces a looming deadline to raise some $2,500 before the apartment passed off to someone else.
She's appealing the decision, dated March 23, which said her request was denied because the ministry only considers funds for out-of-province or country moves "for the purpose of improving living circumstances."
It's a rule that doesn't make sense to her.
"I don't understand why it's out of province. It would cost them more money," says McAstocker, who with her disability and other meagre funds lives off about $1,200 a month.
"The ministry, I thought they were here to help people."
In an emailed statement, Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell said the province provides assistance for transportation under certain circumstances.
"This is the first I've heard of this case and I am looking into the specifics to ensure we are supporting people as best we can," Stilwell said.
The statement said moving costs within B.C. are sometimes covered if the home where the person is staying is sold, demolished, or condemned or if a person has a job in another city, or must move because of threats to their physical safety.
These particular policies, outlined in the Employment and Assistance for Persons with Disabilities Regulation, have been in place since at least the 1990s, with no recent amendments.
In McAstocker's original application, a letter signed by her case manager, social worker and family physician tells the ministry "this funding request is very urgent and time sensitive due to the complexity of the situation.
"In Prince George Carrie is very isolated and does not often leave her apartment," they wrote.
"The winters are really brutal," says McAstocker, who endures pain from bumpy roads and longer commutes in snowy conditions.
"I find myself getting more and more depressed. I spend my holidays by myself."
Sitting in her Alward Street home, McAstocker recalls crying in that same position for hours.
"I need support around me. I don't want to be one of these people that sit and die alone," she said. "I just think sometimes - I should have never said it but I did - I just think maybe if I took a handful of medication that I have here, it would just be so much easier just to go. (But) then I think about my kids," she said, her voice shaking.
"That's the point I'm at. It's just not fair that I can't get down there. I'm just so scared that they're going to give this apartment to somebody else if we don't get the funds. I don't know if I can handle another year here."
She said neither of her sons or her sister, who is retired, can help her financially. The Spruce City Lions Club has donated $1,000, but she needs a further $2,500 to cover the rest of the move and her flight, since Northern Health's bus doesn't travel to Kamloops.
The ministry has said it would cover the $400 damage deposit, which McAstocker needs to hold the place, but she can't get the damage deposit from the ministry without assurances that she can in fact move. McAstocker's rent in Prince George is $600, and the rent in the room in Kamloops is $750, of which the Ministry would cover $702, McAstocker said.
As a peer-match through a Spinal Cord Injury BC program, Brandy Stiles has witnessed McAstocker's frustration for the past few years.
"It's really frustrating to watch because there's so many hoops to jump through," says Stiles, adding she understands there should be rules in place. "There's a bigger cost that I don't think is necessarily taken into account."
Heather Lamb, an information resource specialist with Spinal Cord Injury BC, said housing is the number one complaint members contact them about.
"Finding accessible housing is very difficult. There's very little that's affordable," she says, about accommodations with wider doorways and more spacious bathrooms.
"There's long waitlists for subsidized housing, so people tend to stay where they are. And many non-profit housing providers will give priority to people who are already living in community. So it's quite difficult to do it from afar."
The nature of McAstocker's injury makes her situation more difficult, Lamb says.
She was hurt in February 2007 in a "freak accident" when she slipped and fell down a flight of stairs, damaging her vertebrae and leaving her paralyzed from the chest down and with very limited capacity in her arms and hands.
"I think people in society assume that governments will take care of them when a serious accident occurs. For somebody like Carrie who was not injured in a car accident or workplace accident, there's no insurance," said Lamb, adding in many cases people will spend all their savings in the aftermath of recovery.
"Being close to family... is extremely important," Lamb says.
"We know that when people have family supports they tend to do better physically and emotionally as well. So there is an indirect benefit to the medical care system. It's hard to prove a link, but there is a link."
