Past the due date

The mother of a young man with significant mental health problems came to the Ombudsman because her son, who was receiving ODSP benefits, had been threatened with eviction from his group home because his rent had not been paid via ODSP.

The mother of a young man with significant mental health problems came to the Ombudsman because her son, who was receiving ODSP benefits, had been threatened with eviction from his group home because his rent had not been paid via ODSP. The mother had scraped together two months’ rent for him but could not afford to pay for a third month.

Ombudsman staff brought the case to an ODSP manager, who discovered the man’s case worker had gone on maternity leave and no replacement case worker had been provided. This lapse meant the ODSP’s files weren’t up to date. It was not aware the man had moved recently, and had been sending his rent to his previous landlord. The manager immediately assigned another case worker and the man’s former landlord reimbursed the ODSP for three months’ rent it had paid on his behalf.

The mother was reimbursed for what she had paid.