A story of resilience in the face of housing insecurity

In 2015, in the midst of the Flint Water Crisis, Shearese Stapleton found herself homeless and living in a shelter with her pre-teen son. She was a single mother, having recently gone through a divorce, and, as the saying goes, life just happened. While there was a lot of uncertainty during that chapter of her life, she refused to let it define her and, through indomitable grit and determination, she was able to push through the obstacles in her path in order to secure a new, safe place to live.

Shearese Stapleton

After six months of living in the shelter, Shearese moved into an apartment complex that she called home for seven years, but not without some bumps in the road. During her time there, she was taken to court by her landlord four times for late rental payments. She was working and had the money to pay her rent, but like many on a fixed income, paying on the seventh day of the month was a struggle because other bills were due at or around the same time and she received her paychecks at the middle and end of the month. 

After her fourth time in court, the judge finally asked the landlord to work with her so that the due date for her rent payment better aligned with her paycheck schedule. However, along the way, she accumulated late payments and court fees, which only exacerbated her struggle to make ends meet. 

Her court visits were also confusing and stressful to navigate because she didn’t have an attorney to fight for her interests, which is unfortunately not uncommon for Michigan renters because a right to counsel in eviction proceedings currently does not exist in the state. And since landlords typically do have attorneys, unfair power imbalances between renters and landlords almost always exist within the walls of eviction courtrooms, leading to a higher rate of unfavorable and, at times, flat-out unjust outcomes for renters.

Later on, during the pandemic, ownership of the apartment complex where Shearese was living changed hands and the new owners would no longer accept her Housing Choice Voucher, which meant her rent was slated to go up by an additional $300 a month. She tried to go month-to-month on her rent and secured assistance from an agency to help make the higher monthly payments while she looked for a new, more affordable place to live, but she ultimately was given just three months to move out. 

It wasn’t enough time.

Shearese vividly recalls having to vacate her apartment right after Christmas, leaving behind clothes, furniture and other personal belongings…even the Christmas tree had to stay. She then temporarily moved into a hotel until the rental home she had found became available for move-in, but that hotel stay exhausted her income and she ended up having to stay longer than expected in order to save up enough to make the first month’s rental payment. 

Shearese’s dad had sadly passed away around that same time, which only made a bad situation worse. She credits her behavioral health background, her relationship with God and the support of her family–including her now-adult children–with helping her get through that incredibly difficult time.

Shearese is thankful for where she is now in life. 

Her passion for making life’s path a little smoother for other families facing hardship or trauma led her to found the Flint-based nonprofit Mothers of Joy Institute for Parenting and Family Wellness, Inc., where she continues to serve as the executive director to this day. Her organization’s mission is to empower those responsible for the well-being of children by providing programs, information and resources that support the growth and development of families. 

In order to carry out this important work, Shearese has received her license as a family recovery coach and she is also now a certified trauma-informed parenting coach and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) master trainer with the Michigan ACE Initiative. Shearese is also an ordained pastor, a member of the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness and recently authored a book titled “Positive Parenting for Trauma-Informed Families.” 

Shearese is able to draw from her own life experiences to help others in the work she now feels called to do. She’s lived through a lot and come out on the other side a stronger person who believes better communication with and support for families is key to ensuring they aren’t left without a stable roof over their heads. She also believes that two bills recently introduced in the Michigan Legislature—Senate Bill 801 and House Bill 5237—would have gone a long way in helping her and hold a lot of promise for the families she now supports. These bills would provide for the sealing and expungement of eviction records when in the interest of justice and establish a statewide right to counsel for tenants in eviction proceedings. 

Shearese is hopeful that these bills become state law so that fewer families find themselves living on the streets or in a shelter, and families that do have eviction filings on their records face less barriers in securing safe, affordable housing. She believes the bills are especially important for families raising young children, noting that “people who are raising little humans need to have somewhere they can lay their heads so that they can be productive for their families.”

Shearese is a great example of what can be achieved with stable housing and the will to make something good out of past life challenges. She says the real payment of the work she does now with families is when she gets to see them in a place where they are “whole, healthy, healed, happy and able to accomplish things in life.”