TORONTO — Christmas has come early for Jasmine Phillips, after she received a phone call saying she would finally have a new accessible place to live.
The same day Global News aired a story about her plight, Oxford County called her with news that they had an opening in an accessible, affordable apartment for the 25-year-old Ingersoll, Ont. resident.
Jasmine said after waiting so long, the news was hard to believe.
READ MORE: Ontario mother puts up billboard to decry housing delays for disabled daughter
“Are you for real?” was the first thing that went through her mind, she said.
Jasmine has cerebral palsy and is deaf. Last spring, she gave up her apartment with plans to go to university in the U.S.
When those plans unexpectedly fell through, she had to move into her mom’s inaccessible, cramped rental home — where she can’t even reach the counter, let alone go outside.
Her mother said it would be too costly to build a ramp.
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Jasmine and her mother told Global News last week that after months of being told by Oxford County that she would have an accessible, affordable apartment, they found out renovations on the building were far from being finished.
Jasmine said that because she was unable to go out, her world was closing in. They claimed week after week went by and no one from the county would tell them what was happening.
“A little bit of everything, exciting, happy,” said her mother Ronda Phillips of the emotions that came tumbling in.
In desperation, she put up a billboard, a plea for help, facing a Tim Hortons drive-thru in hopes of getting attention.
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Once they confirmed Philips would get the apartment, Ronda took the billboard down.
“We are just very very grateful to everybody involved and since the first story went out there’s been a lot of support,” she said.
Oxford County said the timing was coincidental, and that a vacancy had just opened up.
“Next on the list gets the call and obviously it is good timing,” said Paul Beaton, director of Human Services for Oxford County.
For Jasmine, the future looks brighter.
“I can be more independent, learning what I could do again,” she said.
She is scheduled to move into the accessible suite, just three-and-a-half kilometres from her mother’s house, in mid-January.
Jasmine says that now she can start to be part of society again.
A thought which produced a big smile, and a simple statement.
“I can go out anytime I want.”
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